Antimicrobial irrigation of deep pockets to supplement oral hygiene instruction and root debridement

Abstract

A total of 64 sites with probing pocket depth .gtoreq. 6 mm from 11 patients were treated with plaque control instruction and one episode of root planing. Subsequently, selected sites in each patient were irrigated with either chlorhexidine, tetracycline, saline or served as non-irrigated control sites. Irrigation immediately followed instrumentation, and was repeated every 2 wk for 24 wk. Healing was monitored at 8, 16 and 24 wk clinically and at 7, 15 and 23 wk with subgingival washings for determination of % as well as total number of spirochetes. The following changes were apparent from comparing pooled site means at 24 wk with pretreatment data: bleeding sites decreased from 62 or 64 sites initially to 22 of 64; spirochetes decreased from 34% to 2%; probing pocket depths decreased from 7.6 to 4.7 mm and probing attachment levels showed a gain of 1.2 mm. The improvement of the chlorhexidine and tetracycline irrigated sites was similar to that of the saline irrigated and non-irrigated control sites. Thus, biweekly chlorhexidine, tetracycline or saline irrigation of deep pockets did not appear to augment the effects of non-surgical periodontal therapy.