LAUSR

Objectives This study compared the clinical effects of a full-mouth disinfection (FMD) protocol for the treatment of mild-to-moderate periodontitis in type 2 diabetic and non-diabetic subjects for up to 1 year. Secondary aim was to evaluate the effects of this therapy on the salivary levels of periodontal pathogens between diabetics and non-diabetics. Material and methods Twenty-six type 2 diabetic subjects and 28 non-diabetic subjects with mild-to-moderate periodontitis received full-mouth scaling and root planing within 24 h, application of chlorhexidine digluconate (CHX) gel in pockets and tongue plus CHX rinses for 14 days. Clinical monitoring was performed at baseline, 3, 6, and 12 months post-therapy. Salivary levels of red complex bacterial species were evaluated at baseline, 6, and 12 months post-therapy by qPCR. Results Intention-to-treat analyses were performed for seven diabetics and three non-diabetics that did not return for the 12-month evaluation. Most clinical parameters improved significantly at 3, 6, and 12 months post-therapies for both groups ( p  < 0.05). Overall, there were no significant differences in clinical parameters between groups after therapy ( p  > 0.05). At 1 year, 39.3% and 50.0% of the non-diabetic and diabetic subjects, respectively, achieved the desired clinical endpoint for treatment (≤ 4 sites with probing depth ≥ 5 mm) (primary outcome variable) ( p  > 0.05). FMD did not promote changes in the salivary levels of pathogens in either of the groups ( p  > 0.05). Levels of T. forsythia were lower in diabetic than in non-diabetic subjects at 6 months post-therapy ( p  < 0.05). Conclusions Type 2 diabetic subjects and systemically healthy subjects with mild-to-moderate periodontitis responded similarly to the proposed FMD protocol for up to 1 year. Clinical relevance There is a general thought that diabetics do not answer as well as non-diabetics to periodontal treatments. However, this study showed that diabetics and non-diabetics respond equally to the FMD protocol. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT02643771.