Clinical evaluation of a protocol of subgingival debridement with Er:YAG laser in comparison to ultrasonic debridement: a randomized clinical trial

Objective:The aim of this parallel controlled randomized clinical trial was to evaluate the clinical efficacy of ultrasonic subgingival debridement in combination with Er:YAG laser as compared to full mouth ultrasonic subgingival debridement alone, after one year, in patients with initial to moderate chronic periodontitis. Material & Methods: 40 patients diagnosed with mild to moderate periodontal disease were randomly allocated to a subgingivally scaling with ultrasounds+Er:YAG laser (test group) or with just ultrasounds (control group). Patients were clinically evaluated at baseline and 1, 3, 6 and 12 months after treatment. Results: No differences could be seen between groups for probing pocket depths (PPD), clinical attachment levels (CAL), bleeding on probing (BOP), plaque index (PI) or recession (REC). A trend could be seen in the test group to have a higher reduction in the PPD values, a smaller proportion of pockets with a PPD≥4 mm and smaller proportion of open pockets (PPD≥4mm+BOP) at the 12 months evaluation. Conclusion: The treatment of periodontitis combining ultrasounds and an Er:YAG laser resulted in similar results than those obtained with the conventional treatment with ultrasounds.