FULL MOUTH SCALING AND USING LOCAL ADJUNCTIVES, COMPARING THE OUTCOMES: A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW

Abstract

Periodontitis has a strong association with the presence of bacterial biofilm and dental calculus especially on the root surfaces. Therefore, one of the foremost goals of the non-surgical periodontal therapy (NSPT) is to eradicate microbial and calculus deposits. There has been a long-standing debate about the value and effectiveness of adjunctive therapies along with scaling and root surface debridement and this systematic review aims to scrutinize available literature and develop an understanding about the benefits of adjunctive treatments (AT) such as mouthwashes or topical application of chlorhexidine gel (CG).

This systematic review involves the comparison of full mouth scaling (FMS) with or without the use of AT. Systemic antibiotics were not considered chemical adjunctive in this review. The search was mainly carried out on PubMed database using appropriate vocabulary. Only published data was used, abstracts and articles from non-peer reviewed journals were not selected to further potentiate the study.

Application of the definite search strategy and related parameters resulted in the retrieval of three hundred and seventy articles, of which only 4 articles satisfied the inclusion and exclusion criteria. The included studies displayed no statistically significant difference either in test or the control group in moderate pockets, however, one study showed a statistically significant difference only in deep pockets.

From the available literature, it can be concluded that full mouth disinfection in combination with FMS does not provide any major difference in clinical outcomes when compared to FMS alone. The adjunctive use can be selected on a preference base of the clinician and acceptance of the patients.