Access flap procedures or subgingival debridement for periodontitis?

Periodontal disease
Periodontitis

This review comparing access flaps (AF) and subgingival debridement in achieving probing depth (PD) reduction in patients with periodontitis included 18 studies reported in 36 publications. While the results demonstrated a statistically significant improvement in PD reduction between AF and subgingival debridement this may not be clinically important.

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Photodynamic therapy as an adjunct to non-surgical periodontal treatment

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This review of the adjunctive effects of lasers or antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) to non-surgical periodontal treatment included 17 RCTs. The studies were small and hetrogeneous including just 701 patients in total and of low quality providing very limited evidence.

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Subgingival instrumentation for treating periodontitis

gum disease, scale and polish

This review evaluating the efficacy of subgingival instruments for the treatment of periodontitis included 19 RCTs. The findings show that mechanical subgingival instrumentation is efficacious in the nonsurgical treatment of periodontitis, irrespective of type of instrument or mode of delivery.

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Non-surgical periodontal treatment and quality of life

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This review of the impact of of non-surgical periodontal treatment (NSPT) on oral health-related quality of life included 12 studies. The findings suggest that NSPT improves oral health-related quality of life in the short-term.

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Doxycycline as an adjunct to scaling and root planning in diabetics

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This review of the effectiveness of systemic doxycycline as an adjunct to scaling and root planning (SRP) with SRP alone in diabetic patients with periodontitis included 6 small RCTs suggesting no additional benefit from systemic docycycline.

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Metformin as an adjunct to periodontal treatment

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This review of metformin as an adjunct to scaling and root planing for chronic periodontitis included 5 RCTs that were of limited quality and mainly from one research group. The findings suggest benefit.

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Antibiotics as an adjunct to the non-surgical periodontal treatment of smokers

Smoking man

Mark-Steven Howe looks at a systematic review of the effectiveness of adjunctive antibiotics in smokers undergoing non-surgical periodontal treatment. While a statistical benefit was noted it was not considered to be clinically relevant.

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Periodontal maintenance after specialist treatment: specialist or primary care setting?

gum disease, scale and polish

This reviews of the efficacy of periodontal maintenance treatment carried out in primary care compared to the specialist setting following specialist treatment included 8 cohort studies. The quality of the available evidence was limited suggesting outcomes may be poorer in primary care further high quality studies are required

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Periodontal regeneration therapies: Are benefits long-term?

gum disease, scale and polish

This review of periodontal regeneration therapies included 52 trials. While the results suggest some statistically significant improvements they may not be clinically important. There is also limited data for outcomes longer than 12 months.

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