Efficacy of Guided Biofilm Therapy in Pediatric Patient

Overview

The present parallel randomized clinical trial aims to assess the efficacy of a plaque disclosing agent (PDA) and air-flowing with erythritol powder (Guided Biofilm Therapy) in the removal of biofilm and plaque in paediatric participants during professional oral hygiene, compared with ultrasonic debridement. The participants will be divided in four groups and receive: * Guided Biofilm Therapy with plaque disclosing agent (GBT+) * Guided Biofilm Therapy without plaque disclosing agent (GBT-) * Ultrasonic debridement and polishing with plaque disclosing agent (US+C+) * Ultrasonic debridement and polishing without plaque disclosing agent (US+C-) Clinical and image software analysis (ImageJ) of residual plaque will be performed.

Oral biofilm is not easily detectable visually, so its removal can be difficult. Using a plaque disclosing agent to highlight biofilm and plaque could aid during its removal and may be beneficial. In paediatric patients, often times it is more difficult to perform professional oral hygiene because of lack of compliance. Our hypothesis is that the visual guide of the plaque disclosing might help obtaining a better result in terms of plaque removal. Moreover, the use of air-flowing could lead to several advantages compared to traditional professional oral hygiene (ultrasonic debridement and polishing cups), such as increased comfort and compliance, shorter treatment time, easier access to difficult areas and the minimal-invasiveness on soft and hard tissue. The study is a mono-centric, pragmatic, single-blinded, randomized clinical trial (RCT) of parallel design. The primary outcome is the Residual Plaque Area (RPA) expressed in percentage of area with residual plaque highlighted by disclosing plaque agent. Secondary outcomes are Full Mouth Plaque Score (FMPS), treatment time and participants' feedback.