Abstract
The purpose of this study was to investigate clinically the healing events of periodontitis after subgingival debridement with an ultrasonic probe-type tip scaler. 213 surfaces of 74 non-instrumented teeth with periodontitis in 12 patients were studied. All subjects received oral hygiene instruction and supragingival scaling. After each patient was found to maintain a good oral hygiene condition, the experimental period began. As a baseline, ultrasonic subgingival debridement with the newly designed device was performed on 128 experimental root surfaces until the operator was convinced of completing the debridement, and the remaining 85 surfaces served as a non-instrumented control. Plaque index, probing depth, clinical attachment level, gingival crevicular fluid and bleeding on probing were evaluated at the baseline and 1, 2 and 4 weeks after instrumentation.
The results were as follows: The mean plaque index remained constantly low in both experimental and control groups. Inflammatory indicies (bleeding on probing and gingival crevicular fluid) were markedly reduced in the experimental group. Experimental sites with initial probing depth of . 4 mm showed marked reduction in probing depth and an increase in attachment level although those parameters in the control sites remained unchanged.
The results demonstrate that subgingival debridement with the new device is efficient for periodontal treatment in patients with good oral hygiene.
