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Objective: Assessment of a dental student's clinical performance is essential for providing feedback for improving education. This study evaluated the ability of undergraduate dental students to treat periodontal patients with two techniques, ultrasonic debridement with polishing (UD+P) and the erythritol powder air polishing with ultrasonic instrumentation (EPAP+UD) in a split-mouth design., Methods: The study was conducted on undergraduate students with patients suffering from gingivitis and stage I periodontitis with grade A. The evaluation consisted of two parts: first, assessment of the student by clinical indices (full mouth plaque index (FMPI), calculus index (CI), remaining calculus index (RCI), modified gingival index (MGI) and papillary bleeding index (PBI)) at baseline, immediately and after 2 weeks. In addition to assessing treatment time for each student; and second, obtaining student feedback about the two methods used., Results: Five undergraduate fourth years' students, and thirteen patients participated. Statistically significant decreases in FMPI, CI, MGI and PBI between baseline and 2 weeks post-treatment were noted in both test and control groups. At 2 weeks of inter-group comparisons, there was a statistically significant difference in FMPI and MGI indices, and immediately after the treatment, there was also a significant reduction in FMPI and CI. Treatment time was significantly less for the EPAP+UD method, and it got 10-time method preferring in comparison with the control group (UD+P) by students., Conclusion: The undergraduate dental student has the capacity to treat the periodontal patient using both approaches with a preference for the EPAP+UI approach over UI+P. In addition, this EPAP+UI is a promising method of education., (© 2021 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Objective: The purpose of this trial was to evaluate the clinical efficacy and patient acceptance of using the erythritol powder air polishing with mechanical debridement in non-surgical periodontal therapy., Methods: The trial was conducted as a split-mouth design study of 6 weeks' duration including 13 patients with gingivitis and stage I periodontitis with grade A. Each patient received ultrasonic debridement and polishing (UD+P) on one side, whereas the contralateral side was treated by erythritol powder air polishing and ultrasonic instrumentation (EPAP+UI) when required. Clinical variables were as follows: papillary bleeding index (PBI), bleeding on probing (BOP), full mouth plaque index (FMPI), calculus index (CI), modified gingival index (MGI), probing pocket depth (PPD), the time needed and rate the pain for each group., Results: The FMPI, MGI, CI, PBL and BOP parameters improved significantly for both treatment procedures; however, there were no statistically significant differences between the two groups at any of the examinations intervals, except for MGI and CI which showed a significant reduction at 2 weeks compared with baseline. PPD was significantly decreased in EPAP+UI group. Perceived pain intensity was lower for EPAP+UI group than UD+P group without any significant difference during follow-up periods between the two groups. Seven patients favoured air polishing. The treatment's time was (24.92 ± 9.260 and 34.08 ± 9.106) minutes for the test and control side, respectively., Conclusion: This study generally revealed no significant differences in clinical outcomes between two groups for gingivitis and stage I periodontitis treatment. However, EPAP+UI had higher patient's preference and less time-consuming compared with UD+P., (© 2021 John Wiley & Sons A/S. Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)