Effect of Professional Prophylaxis on Clinical Parameters and Patient Comfort: Randomized Split‐Mouth Clinical Trial

INTRODUCTION: The removal of soft and hard plaque from dental surfaces using manual and mechanical instruments is a regular part of dental practice for the control and prevention of oral diseases. To achieve this goal in a less invasive and more comfortable manner for the patient, the Guided Biofilm Therapy protocol was developed. OBJECTIVE: To compare the effects of the Guided Biofilm Therapy (test) protocol versus the traditional scaling protocol on short-term gingival health parameters and patient comfort. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A blind randomized, split-mouth clinical trial was performed on healthy patients. Each patient was instrumented in two opposing alternate quadrants (1st and 3rd quadrants and 2nd and 4th quadrants) using the two methods under evaluation. A questionnaire was carried out using a Likert scale to measure the comfort felt by the patient during instrumentation. Plaque and bleeding indexes were evaluated at 1 and 3 weeks. RESULTS: Both protocols were associated with short-term improvements in bacterial plaque and gingival inflammation throughout the follow-up evaluations. However, no statistically significant differences were found between protocols for the clinical parameters assessed. The main difference observed was higher comfort during instrumentation with the test protocol (p = 0.002). CONCLUSION: Within the short follow-up of this study, the findings do not demonstrate clinical superiority of the Guided Biofilm Therapy protocol over the conventional protocol for gingival health parameters. The main observed difference relates to greater patient comfort during treatment.