title: Non-surgical periodontal treatment in conjunction with 3 or 7 days systemic administration of amoxicillin and metronidazole in severe chronic periodontitis patients. A placebo-controlled randomized clinical study.
abstract: To evaluate the effect of 3 or 7 days systemic administration of amoxicillin (AMX) and metronidazole (MET) or placebo as adjunct to non-surgical periodontal treatment in severe chronic periodontitis patients.
  
  
  
  One hundred and two patients with severe chronic periodontitis [e.g. ≥1 site with probing pocket depth (PD) ≥ 6 mm per quadrant] were randomly divided into three equally sized groups and treated with either scaling and root planing within 24 h (SRP) + placebo (Group A) or SRP + AMX + MET (both 500 mg × 3 times daily) for 3 days (Group B) or SRP + AMX + MET (both 500 mg × 3 times daily) for 7 days (Group C). PD, clinical attachment level (CAL), bleeding on probing (BOP), full-mouth plaque scores (FMPS) and gingival bleeding index (GBI) were assessed prior to treatment (baseline), and at 3 and 6 months post-treatment. The primary outcome variable was the difference (Δ) in the number of sites with PD ≥ 6 mm.
  
  
  
  Ninety-one patients completed the study. At both 3 and 6 months, all three treatment protocols resulted in statistically significant improvements compared to baseline for all evaluated clinical parameters (p < 0.001). At 6 months, a statistically significantly greater reduction in the mean number of sites with PD ≥ 6 mm was observed in group B (28.62 ± 15.32 sites) and group C (30.45 ± 15.04 sites) compared to the placebo group (17.10 ± 14.68 sites). Furthermore, both the 3- and the 7-day antibiotic regimen resulted in statistically significantly higher clinical improvements compared to the placebo group (p < 0.05).
  
  
  
  The present findings indicate that in patients with severe chronic periodontitis, non-surgical periodontal therapy in conjunction with a 3 or 7 days systemic administration of AMX + MET may lead to significantly greater clinical improvements compared to non-surgical therapy alone.
authors.affiliation: Department of Periodontology, Philipps University Marburg, Marburg, Germany.|Clinic for Prosthetic Dentistry, University Iuliu Hatieganu, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
authors.forename: Raluca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Cosgarea
authors.affiliation: Clinic for Prosthetic Dentistry, University Iuliu Hatieganu, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
authors.forename: Raluca
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Juncar
authors.affiliation: Department for Statistics, Ludwig-Maximilians University, Munich, Germany.
authors.forename: Christian
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Heumann
authors.affiliation: Clinic for Prosthetic Dentistry, University Iuliu Hatieganu, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
authors.forename: Roxana
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Tristiu
authors.affiliation: Clinic for Prosthetic Dentistry, University Iuliu Hatieganu, Cluj-Napoca, Romania.
authors.forename: Liana
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Lascu
authors.affiliation: Department of Periodontology, Philipps University Marburg, Marburg, Germany.
authors.forename: Nicole
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Arweiler
authors.affiliation: Department of Periodontology, Faculty of dentistry, Malmö University, Malmö, Sweden.
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.identifier: 0000-0001-8161-3754
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Stavropoulos
authors.affiliation: Department of Periodontology, School of Dental Medicine, University of Bern, Bern, Switzerland.
authors.forename: Anton
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Sculean
mesh_terms: D000658:Amoxicillin; D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D055113:Chronic Periodontitis; D012534:Dental Scaling; D006801:Humans; D008795:Metronidazole; D016745:Root Planing; D016896:Treatment Outcome
chemical_list: D000900:Anti-Bacterial Agents; D008795:Metronidazole; D000658:Amoxicillin
keywords: amoxicillin; metronidazole; non-surgical periodontal treatment; systemic antibiotics