effect of antimicrobial photodynamic therapy as an adjunct to nonsurgical treatment of deep periodontal pockets: a clinical study

introduction: deep periodontal pockets pose a great challenge for nonsurgical periodontal treatment. scaling and root planing (srp) alone may not suffice in cases where surgical therapy cannot be undertaken. various recent studies have suggested the use of antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (apdt) for the management of periodontal infections. the aim of this study was to evaluate the effects of using apdt along with srp, compared to srp alone for the management of deep periodontal pockets. methods: thirty patients with chronic periodontitis, who met the criteria of having periodontal pockets with depth ≥ 6 mm and bleeding on probing (bop) in at least 2 different quadrants were included. after srp, one quadrant was randomly selected for apdt (test), while another served as control. clinical parameters i.e. plaque index (pi), modified sulcular bleeding index (msbi), probing depth (pd) and clinical attachment level (cal) were measured at baseline, 1 month and 3 months post-treatment intervals. results: all clinical parameters significantly improved in both groups after 1 and 3 months. at 1-month interval, inter-group difference in mean change was statistically significant ( p < 0.05) in terms of msbi (0.85 ± 0.41in test vs 0.54 ± 0.47 in control group) and pd (1.77±0.86 in test vs 1.3 ± 0.95 in control group). at 3 months interval, no statistically significant difference was observed between test and control groups except in terms of msbi (0.97 ± 0.45 in test vs 0.73 ± 0.42 in control group). conclusion: apdt appears to play an additional role in reduction of gingival inflammation when used along with nonsurgical mechanical debridement of deep periodontal pockets.