Substantiation of the anti-inflammatory effect of photodynamic therapy in periodontal diseases

The aim is to study the effect of photodynamic therapy as an additional method of treatment of inflammatory periodontal diseases on a clinical example. Research objectives. To develop and apply a protocol for the treatment of periodontal patients using photodynamic therapy in combination with traditional methods of treatment in a clinical study. Evaluate the results of the treatment, compare the results with the literature data. Materials and methods. The study involved 50 patients diagnosed with K05.1 Chronic gingivitis of moderate severity. The patients were divided into 2 groups: the study group and the control group. The study group, unlike the control group, received photodynamic therapy in addition to the standard treatment of chronic gingivitis. The evaluation of treatment results was carried out using the papillary-marginal-alveolar index (PMA) modified by C. Parma (1960). The results obtained during the study were statistically analyzed. Descriptive statistics methods were used, the Student’s t-test was calculated, as well as the nonparametric Mann—Whitney test for independent groups. Results and discussion. During the comparison of the groups before the start of periodontal treatment, there was no statistically significant difference between the groups: the study and control groups did not differ from each other before the treatment. However, after periodontal treatment, the values of statistical criteria showed a statistically significant difference: in the study group, after therapeutic measures, a greater degree of reduction in the average papillary-marginal-alveolar index was revealed than in the control group. Conclusion. The developed protocol of photodynamic therapy demonstrates high efficiency in reducing the level of inflammation (reduction of the PMA index by 36.84% in the group using photodynamic therapy (p<0.05)) in periodontal tissues due to the elimination of pathogenic microflora. Treatment using photodynamic therapy contributes to a more significant reduction in the average PMA index than in the control group by 10.88% (p<0.05). The use of photodynamic therapy opens up new horizons in the treatment of periodontal patients. The results of the study are consistent with the data obtained by a number of authors. In all the presented works, there was a significant decrease in the PMA index (p<0.05, p<0.05, p=0.0001) in groups of patients undergoing combined treatment, including traditional treatment of inflammatory periodontal diseases and photodynamic therapy, which also emphasizes the effectiveness of photodynamic therapy in the treatment of inflammatory periodontal diseases.