Six-month results following treatment of aggressive periodontitis with antimicrobial photodynamic therapy or amoxicillin and metronidazole

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The use of antibacterial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) additionally to scaling and root planing (SRP) has been shown to positively influence the clinical outcomes. However, at present, it is unknown to what extent aPDT may represent a potential alternative to the use of systemic antibiotics in nonsurgical periodontal therapy in patients with aggressive periodontitis (AP). The aim of this study was to evaluate the outcomes following nonsurgical periodontal therapy and additional use of either aPDT or amoxicillin and metronidazole (AB) in patients with AP. Thirty-six patients with AP displaying at least three sites with pocket depth (PD) ≥6mm were treated with SRP and either systemic administration of AB for 7 days or with two episodes of aPDT. The following clinical parameters were evaluated at baseline and at 6 months: plaque index (PI), bleeding on probing (BOP), PD, gingival recession (GR) and clinical attachment level (CAL). Thirty-five patients have completed the 6-month evaluation. At 6 months, mean PD was statistically significantly reduced in both groups (from 5.0 ± 0.8 to 3.0 ± 0.6mm with AB and from 5.1 ± 0.5 to 3.9 ± 0.8mm with aPDT (p < 0.001)). AB yielded statistically significantly higher improvements in the primary outcome parameter PD (p < 0.001) when compared to aPDT. The number of pockets ≥7mm was reduced from 141 to 3 after AB (p < 0.001) and from 137 to 45 after aPDT (p = 0.03). Both therapies resulted in statistically significant reductions in all parameters compared to baseline. While both treatments resulted in statistically significant clinical improvements, AB showed statistically significantly higher PD reduction and lower number of pockets ≥7mm compared to aPDT. In patients with AP, the two times application of aPDT in conjunction with nonsurgical periodontal therapy cannot be considered an alternative to the systemic use of amoxicillin and metronidazole.