Effects of One-stage Full-mouth Scaling and Root Planing in Combination with Azithromycin

• Published in: Nihon Shishubyo Gakkai Kaishi (Journal of the Japanese Society of Periodontology) Vol. 48; no. 1; pp. 17 - 27
• Main Authors: Yashima, Akihiro, Gomi, Kazuhiro, Ohshima, Tomoko
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: Japanese
• Published: JAPANESE SOCIETY OF PERIODONTOLOGY 2006
• Subjects: azithromycin; one-stage full-mouth SRP; periodontal pathogens
• ISSN: 0385-0110; 1880-408X
• DOI: 10.2329/perio.48.17

Periodontal disease is an infectious disease caused by putative periodontal pathogens. Tooth-brushing and scaling and root planing (SRP) are effective and important therapies for elimination of these bacteria. SRP plays an important role in subgingival plaque control. However, since SRP is usually performed several times in a quadrant-wise or sextant-wise manner, periodontal disease-related bacteria can recolonize the treated areas from other untreated areas, and bacterial reinfection may occur in the treated sites. It might be possible that this phenomenon induces a relapse of periodontal disease. We therefore tried one-stage full-mouth SRP, in order to control the number of bacteria, and administered azithromycin orally as an antibacterial before SRP to maintain the optimal drug concentration. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects of one-stage full-mouth SRP with conventional SRP up to three months after SRP in terms of clinical parameters (PD, GI, BOP and GCF), the total number of bacteria and the number of black pigment production rods (BPRs). Thirty subjects with severe chronic periodontitis were selected. Fifteen subjects received one-stage full-mouth SRP (test group) and fifteen received conventional SRP (control group). The subjects of the test group were given and azithromycin 3 days before full-mouth SRP. The test group showed greater improvement in all clinical parameters than the control group. The total number of bacteria remained unchanged during the examination period. In the test group, BPRs could not be detected in this period. However, BPRs were still detectable in the control group after 3 months. It was demonstrated that a one-stage full-mouth SRP in conjunction with systemically administrated azithromycin was very effective clinically and microbiologically.