Short ultrasonic debridement with adjunctive low-concentrated hypochlorite/amino acid gel during periodontal maintenance: randomized clinical trial of 12 months

The objective of this study was to evaluate the benefit of repeated subgingival cleaning with a low-concentrated hypochlorite/amino acid gel in subjects in maintenance care with residual pockets ≥ 5 mm. Examiner masked, randomized two-arm parallel design. Thirty-two adult periodontal patients in maintenance phase, > 3 months after periodontal therapy, with at least one residual periodontal pocket ≥ 5 mm, were randomly assigned to treatment by subgingival ultrasonic debridement with the gel or ultrasonic debridement only. At months 0, 4, and 8, all sites presenting with a probing depth (PD) ≥ 5 mm were treated. Six sites were monitored on each tooth. The primary end point was the presence or absence of PD ≥ 5 mm after 12 months. Secondary clinical outcomes were oral tissue safety; patient acceptance; changes in PD; bleeding on probing; recession after 4, 8, and 12 months; and the presence or absence of six target microorganisms in treated pockets at baseline, after 7 days and 4 months. A total of 365 sites in 32 patients with PD ≥ 5 mm were treated at baseline. At the final evaluation at month 12, 47% of these sites in the test and 49% in the control group were still in this PD category. The difference between baseline and month 12 was significant in both groups (p