| dc.description.abstract | Severe, chronic periodontitis is typically treated with mechanical debridement in an effort to gain clinical attachment and hopefully alter etiological factors. If left undisturbed, the plaque biofilm will progressively transform to have a detrimental effect on the periodontium. The search for an effective adjunct to aid in mechanical debridement has lead to the use of lasers. This is supported by recent marketing with a focus in the dental market as well as numerous, recent reports on their range of uses in the dental literature. This paper presents a novel approach to the treatment of severe, chronic periodontitis utilizing the carbon dioxide (CO2) laser in combination with scaling and root planing for non-surgical therapy. This laser study presents the clinical and bacterial findings of 14 patients compared in a split-mouth design and followed for 6 months. Within the confines of this six month study, sites treated with the laser assisted non-surgical therapy (LANST) tended to show a greater decrease in probing depths and greater gains in clinical attachment levels; however, the results were not statistically significantly better than scaling and root planing alone. The decrease in several suspected periodontal pathogens for the first 3 and 6 months after therapy appears very promising. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first reported case series utilizing a unique ablative CO2 laser handpiece for sulcular decontamination in combination with scaling and root planing for the treatment of chronic periodontitis. | en |
