Photodynamic therapy in the non-surgical treatment of chronic periodontitis- A clinical study

The present study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of photodynamic therapy as an adjunct to nonsurgical periodontal therapy in patients with chronic periodontitis. Materials and Methods- 30 sites in either maxilla or mandible in 15 subjects (both males and females) between the age groups 20–70 years diagnosed with moderate chronic periodontitis and periodontal pockets with probing pocket depth > 4mm were selected for split mouth study design. Selected teeth were divided in two groups. Control site was treated with scaling and root planing using hand instruments and Test site was treated with scaling and root planing followed by a single episode of photodynamic therapy. Clinical parameters i.e Plaque index, Sulcus bleeding index, Relative attachment level, Probing pocket depth were evaluated at baseline, 1 month and 3 months. Results- A statistically extremely significant improvement in all clinical parameters in both control and test groups at all the time intervals throughout the study was observed. conclusion- Both procedures were equally effective in improving clinical parameters of periodontal disease with adjunctive use of PDT on SRP provided a significantly greater reduction in plaque index scores at 3 months. Both the procedures were equally effective in improving these clinical parameters individually, but the difference between them was not statistically significant except plaque index scores at 3 months, which came out to be statistically significant.