Supportive periodontal therapy in moderate-to-severe periodontitis patients: A two-year randomized clinical trial.

Aim: Evaluate supportive periodontal therapy (SPT) consisting of oral prophylaxis with oral hygiene instructions as sole intervention (test) or combined with subgingival instrumentation removing/disrupting the subgingival biofilm (control).

Material And Methods: Sixty-two treated periodontitis patients (50.97 ± 9.26 years, 24 smokers) were randomly assigned to receive, every 3 months during 2 years, either test or control treatment. Examination included periodontal probing depth (PPD), bleeding on probing (BOP) and clinical attachment loss (CAL). Generalized estimating equations were used for analyses.

Results: Baseline demographics and smoking were similar between groups. However, at baseline, mean PPD was greater in test group than in control group (2.32 mm vs. 2.17 mm, p = .03), but similar after 2 years (2.23 mm vs. 2.15 mm, respectively). With time, significant PPD and BOP decrease and CAL increase were observed although without significant differences between groups. At sites ≥ 5 mm, PPD decrease was greater in test group than in control group irrespective of sex and smoking habit (p = .034). The distribution of sites gaining or losing attachment ±2 mm was similar between groups.

Conclusion: Oral prophylaxis with oral hygiene instructions alone or in combination with subgingival instrumentation was able to maintain the previously obtained periodontal condition to a comparable extent during 2 years of SPT.