Efficacy of a diode laser as an adjunct to scaling and root planing in the treatment of periodontitis of elderly patients

Objective: To compare the efficacy of a combination of diode laser with scaling and root planning in treating chronic periodontitis in elderly patients.Methods: Twenty elderly patients with periodontitis were randomly divided into two groups.Patients in experimental group were treated in a split-mouth design with both diode laser and scaling and root planing after OHI and supragingival cleaning,while patients in control group were treated with scaling and root planing alone.At the baseline and at 2,4,8 weeks after treatment,the efficacy was accessed with parameters of sulcus bleeding index(SBI),probing depth(PD) and clinical attachment level(CAL).Results: A significant reduction of SBI occurred in both groups after 2,4 and 8 weeks comparing to baseline(P 0.05).The mean PD decreased significantly after 4 weeks in the test group only comparing to baseline(P 0.05).There was no significant improvement of CAL in both groups comparing to baseline(P 0.05).No statistical significant difference was observed in SBI,PD and CAL between two groups(P 0.05).Conclusion: In conclusion,both the combination of a diode laser with scaling and root planing and scaling and root planing alone lead to significant improvements in SBI and PD in the eldly.But the combination of a diode laser with scaling and root planing and scaling did not additionally improve the outcome of the therapy compared to scaling and root planing alone.