Photodynamic therapy as an adjunct to scaling and root planing in treatment of chronic periodontitis patients: A clinical study

Recent research data have suggested a potential benefit of photodynamic therapy (PDT) in the treatment of periodontitis. However, there is very limited data from controlled clinical trials evaluating the effect of PDT in the treatment of periodontitis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical effects of the adjunctive use of PDT to scaling and root planing in chronic periodontitis patients. Thirty-four sites with chronic periodontitis were randomly treated with scaling and root planing followed by a single episode of PDT (test) or scaling and root planing alone (control).Bleeding score using Sulcular bleeding index 1971, probing depth (PD), gingival recession (GR), and clinical attachment level (CAL) were measured at baseline and 21 days after therapy.At 21 days post-operative, significant differences between the groups with regards to Clinical attachment level, Pocket probing depth, Full mouth bleeding scores were observed. Conclusion: The additional application of a single episode of PDT to scaling and root planing results in an additional improvement in terms of Pocket depth reduction and Clinical attachment level gain, but it resulted in a significantly higher reduction in bleeding scores compared to scaling and root planing alone.