Probiotics and Periodontitis Study

According to recent research, it has been observed that topical application of probiotics in combination with SRP increases the effectiveness of conventional non-surgical therapy of periodontitis, as published in the International Journal of Dental Hygiene.

The use of local probiotics in the therapy of periodontitis is reflected in their ability to antagonize periodontopathogens and modulate the immune response of the host to the presence of pathogenic microorganisms.

Effectiveness of scaling and root planing (SRP) with/without adjunct probiotic treatment towards the reduction in periodontal inflammatory parameters (clinical attachment loss [AL], marginal bone loss [MBL], plaque index [PI], and bleeding on probing [BOP] in patients with chronic periodontitis [CP]) remains uninvestigated.

Hence, Ivan Minić and colleagues from the Department of Periodontology and Oral Medicine, Medical Faculty, University of Nis, Nis, Serbia conducted this present study with the aim to investigate the use of local probiotics in the treatment of periodontitis as an adjunctive therapy to scaling and root planning (SRP).

The study involved 80 patients diagnosed with periodontitis. All participants underwent SRP therapy. Semi-solid probiotic was then locally applied to the periodontal pocket in randomly selected patients for the test group (40 of them).

The other 40 patients were in the control group. Clinical parameters including periodontal pocket depth (PPD), bleeding on probing (BOP), and plaque index (PI) were measured at baseline, and at 7 and 30 days after treatment.

Results

• Seven days after the applied therapy in the test and control group, there was a significant decrease in the values of BOP (p < .001), while the values of other parameters did not show a statistically significant difference (p < .05).
• One month after the therapy in both groups, there was a statistically significant difference in the values of all clinical parameters (p < .001).

Therefore, the authors concluded that "based on the results of this pilot study, it can be said that, during periodontal treatment, topical application of probiotics in combination with SRP increases the effectiveness of conventional non-surgical therapy of periodontitis."