Supportive periodontal therapy in moderate-to-severe periodontitis patients: A two-year randomized clinical trial.

Abstract

Evaluate supportive periodontal therapy (SPT) consisting of oral prophylaxis with oral hygiene instructions as sole intervention (test) or combined with subgingival instrumentation removing/disrupting the subgingival biofilm (control). Sixty-two treated periodontitis patients (50.97±9.26years, 24 smokers) were randomly assigned to receive, every 3months during 2years, either test or control treatment. Examination included periodontal probing depth (PPD), bleeding on probing (BOP) and clinical attachment loss (CAL). Generalized estimating equations were used for analyses. Baseline demographics and smoking were similar between groups. However, at baseline, mean PPD was greater in test group than in control group (2.32mm vs. 2.17mm, p=.03), but similar after 2years (2.23mm vs. 2.15mm, respectively). With time, significant PPD and BOP decrease and CAL increase were observed although without significant differences between groups. At sites≥5mm, PPD decrease was greater in test group than in control group irrespective of sex and smoking habit (p=.034). The distribution of sites gaining or losing attachment ±2mm was similar between groups. Oral prophylaxis with oral hygiene instructions alone or in combination with subgingival instrumentation was able to maintain the previously obtained periodontal condition to a comparable extent during 2years of SPT.