Effectiveness of two supportive periodontal care protocols and outcome predictors during periodontitis: A randomized controlled trial

Supportive periodontal care (SPC) is a series of individualized, site-specific treatments aimed at preventing periodontitis recurrence/progression after successful completion of active periodontal therapy. SPC approaches performed by means of oral hygiene instruction with supra- and subgingival instrumentation and dental polishing (test group) compared to oral hygiene with supragingival instrumentation alone and dental polishing (control group) were both effective in reducing median periodontal outcomes, such as bleeding on probing (BoP), probing pocket depth (PPD), clinical attachment level (CAL), and full-mouth plaque score (FMPS) after active periodontal treatment. However, the SPC approach that included subgingival instrumentation yielded better results compared to oral prophylaxis alone in reducing BoP, a parameter that was significantly influenced also by smoking, median PPD, a high number of sites with PPD 4-5 mm, 5-6 mm, and no sites >6 mm at 24-month follow-up.