The Re-Treatment of Residual Periodontal Pockets: Comparative Clinical Analysis of Non-Surgical Treatment and Laser Therapy

Objectives: Following non-surgical periodontal treatment, to assess the potential efficiency of the re-treatment of residual periodontal pockets by traditional mechanical treatment and by use of 810 nm diode laser in a clinical randomized double blind perspective study. Material and methods: Twenty systemically healthy subjects were included. The subjects had previously undergone routine periodontal therapy and in 45 days reassessment they still showed at least 8 bleeding sites (2 for each quadrant) with probing pocket depth (PPD) ≥5 mm and plaque index (PI) score ≤25%. A split mouth design was applied for the decontamination of these pockets; as two quadrants were retreated with traditional non-surgical therapy and two quadrants with 810 nm diode laser. The subjects were examined at the four experimental sessions (baseline, 15s, 30s and 90s), and at each session PI, PD, clinical attachment level (CAL) and bleeding on probing (BOP) scores were recorded. Data were statistically analysed by means of ANOVA for repeated measurements (SpSS 13.0). Results: The results demonstrated that diode laser treatment, for the residual pockets (PPD ≥5) mm with bleeding after routine therapy, provides very similar outcome compared to re-treatment with traditional therapy, both in terms of PPD and of CAL, as improvements after 15 days (CAL gain of 0.61-1,06 mm) and maintenance of these results could be observed. Conclusion: When compared to traditional non-surgical periodontal re-treatment, 810 nm diode laser does not seem to provide any additional decontaminating effect and thus any clinical benefits.