COMPARATIVE EVALUATION OF EFFICACY OF SCALING AND ROOT PLANING WITH AND WITHOUT CHLORHEXIDINE CHIP AND DIODE LASER IN CHRONIC PERIODONTITIS PATIENTS

The motive of the present study is to comparatively measure the competence and effectiveness of diode laser and chlorhexidine chip as adjuncts to the scaling and root planing procedure, in patients with chronic periodontitis. Aim: To evaluate the efficacy of diode laser and chlorhexidine chip before and after scaling and root planing in the management of chronic periodontitis. The objective is to compare the efficacy of chlorhexidine chip and diode laser before and after scaling and root planning on clinical parameters. Study and design: Randomized clinical trial with split mouth design done in the Department of Periodontics and Implantology. Materials and methods: Twenty chronic periodontitis patients having a probing pocket depth of 5mm-7mm on at least one interproximal site in each quadrant of the mouth were selected in the study. After initial treatment, four sites in each patient were randomly subjected to scaling and root planing (control), chlorhexidine chip application (CHX chip group), diode laser (810 nm) decontamination (Diode laser group) or combination of both (Diode laser and chip group). All subjects received a clinical periodontal examination by single examiner who recorded all the variables by manual procedure. Clinical parameters namely Plaque index (PI), Gingival Index (GI), probing pocket depth (PPD) and clinical attachment level (CAL) were assessed at baseline, one month and three months. Results were statistically analysed using one-way ANOVA followed by Post Hoc Analysis. Results: The differences in PPD reduction and CAL gain between control group and CHX chip and combination groups were statistically significant (p<0.05) at three months, whereas, the diode laser group did not show any significant difference from the control group. Conclusion: Within the limitations in the present study, the following conclusions were derived, i.e., chlorhexidine local delivery alone or in combination with diode laser decontamination is effective in improving oral hygiene, reducing gingival inflammation, reducing probing pocket depth and improving clinical attachment levels when used as adjuncts to scaling and root planing in non-surgical periodontal therapy of patients with chronic periodontitis. Keywords: Diode laser decontamination, Local drug delivery, Scaling and root planing.