Diode Laser Study for Periodontal Maintenance Patients

Overview

This study tries to determine whether the additional use of laser with "cleaning" (known as scaling and root planning) will result in the reduction of inflammation, reduction of bleeding upon examination and reduction of pocket depth in patients who are being maintained on a regular basis but have pocket depths that are ≥5mm with bleeding. When a pocket is bleeding, it is inflamed. It is usually "cleaned" with periodontal instruments (root-planed) to establish health. Some research also advocates using laser therapy to treat a bleeding pocket. Laser therapy is presently being performed in some dental offices and dental colleges. This research is trying to see if the additional laser therapy is beneficial.

The purpose of this study is to determine whether the adjunctive use of diode laser with scaling and root planing is more effective than scaling and root planing alone in clinically reducing periodontal pocket depth (PD), reducing bleeding on probing (BOP) and gaining of clinical attachment level (CAL). It also assesses whether diode laser with scaling and root planing will have an effect on cytokines and inflammatory biomarkers compared to root planing alone. Any adult who is currently a routine periodontal maintenance patient and has one or more ≥ 5mm pockets with BOP will be invited to participate in the study. If they choose to participate, they will sign an informed consent. Crevicular fluid samples from each test site and another non-involved site in the mouth will be collected utilizing the standard protocol and frozen for later analyses of the presence of certain inflammatory biomarkers (IL-1β). Baseline data (i.e., PD, CAL, BOP, suppuration, supragingival plaque, subgingival restorative margins, smoking status) will be collected. The involved teeth will then be randomly treated with scaling and root-planing with hand instruments and diode laser (test) or scaling and root-planing with hand instruments alone. The patient will return 3 months later for follow-up data collection. He/she will then receive his/her regular 3 month maintenance therapy. The changes between baseline and 3 months for the clinical parameters and gingival crevicular fluids' inflammatory biomarkers will be compared between test and control experimental sites.