Non-surgical periodontal treatment of peri-implant diseases with the adjunctive use of diode laser: preliminary clinical study

Peri-implant diseases present in two forms: periimplantmucositis and peri-implantitis. The prevalence ofperi-implant complications is significantly rising. The aim ofthis study was to compare conventional treatment of inflamedperi-implant tissues with conventional treatment together withdiode laser application. Twenty-seven patients (age 36 to 67,15 women and 12 men, 12 smokers and 15 non-smokers)requiring treatment for mucositis or peri-implantitis were takeninto account for this preliminary study. Plaque index (PI),pocket depth (PD), and bleeding on probing (BoP) were recordedat baseline evaluation. Patients in control group (CG)received conventional non-surgical periodontal treatment. Patientsin test group received conventional non-surgical periodontaltreatment together with diode laser application(810 nm, 30 s, 1 W, 50 Hz, ton=100 ms, toff=100 ms, energydensity=24.87 J/cm2). Paired t test was used to evaluate thedifference in repeated measurements of considered indexes atT0 and T1 (1 year) in both groups. A total of 606 sites weretaken into account in the test group (TG) and 144 in the CG.PD mean variation in the TG was 2.66 mm±1.07, while meanPD variation in the CG was 0.94±1.13 mm. Paired t testing ofthe variation in PD in CG and TG revealed a statisticallysignificant difference between the two groups (p<0.0001). Areduction of pathological sites from 89 % (T0) to 14.35 % (T1)was achieved in the TG, while reduction obtained in the CGwas from 75.69 % (T0) to 50 % (T1); BoP scores at time T1 hadfallen below 5 % in the TG and decreased to 59.7 %, in theCG. Within the limitations of this study, diode laser seems tobe an additional valuable tool for peri-implant diseasetreatment.