Assessment of the Effect of Photodynamic Therapy on Treatment of Moderate-to-Severe Periodontitis; a Randomized Clinical Trial Study

BACKGROUND & AIM: Photodynamic therapy is a localized non-invasive treatment modality for the periodontal disease. Some evidences have shown that this technique is effective in improving the treatment outcome. This study compared the effects of photodynamic therapy with and without scaling and root planing and scaling and root planing alone on the clinical parameters of the chronic periodontitis. MATERIALS & METHODS: In this single-blind, randomized clinical trial, 30 chronic periodontitis patients (10 for each modality) were selected and three different methods; photodynamic therapy alone (Group1) by FotoSan 630 system, scaling and root planning (SRP) alone (Group2), scaling and root planing combined with photodynamic therapy (Group3) were done for them randomly. Clinical parameters of probing pocket depth (PPD), bleeding on probing (BOP), and clinical attachment level (CAL) were measured at the baseline and 3, 6 and 12 weeks later. One-sided analysis of variance test was used to analyze PPD and CAL among the treatment groups in each time interval while the paired comparisons were carried out by employment of Dunnett’s test. The treatment groups were statically analyzed by the chi-square test regarding BOP.RESULTS: Before the treatment; no significant differences observed among treatment modalities regarding clinical parameters; while the differences were significant at three weeks (p<0.0001 for PPD and CAL; p<0.001 for BOP); six weeks (p<0.0001 for PPD and CAL, p<0.002 for BOP); and 12 weeks after the treatment (all: p<0.0001). The least PPD and CAL values and the most frequency of non-bleeding on probing status were measured for PDT+SRP modality at three, six, and twelve weeks after the treatment. CONCLUSION: Photodynamic therapy supported the clinical parameters of periodontitis similar to SRP; however, PDT combined with SRP demonstrated a better result than that of SRP alone. Therefore, PDT combined with SRP can be used to improve outcomes of clinical parameters of periodontitis as compared to SRP alone in the short-term.