Antimicrobial photodynamic therapy as an alternative to systemic antibiotics: results from a double‐blind, randomized, placebo‐controlled, clinical study on type 2 diabetics

AIM: This double-blind, placebo-controlled clinical study compared multiple applications of the antimicrobial photodynamic therapy (aPDT) treatment protocol, to systemic doxycycline as adjuvant to scaling and root planing (SRP) on type 2 diabetic patients on clinical, systemic and immune-inflammatory outcomes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Thirty patients with Hba1c >7% were allocated in two groups, SRP + Doxy (n = 15) using systemic doxycycline 100 mg/day (14 days) and SRP + aPDT (n = 15) with multiple applications (0, 3, 7 and 14 days). Primary outcome was glycated haemoglobin levels (HbA1c). Clinical parameters: plaque score (PS), bleeding on probe, probing depth, suppuration, gingival recession, and clinical attachment level, percentage of pockets with desired clinical endpoint were measured at baseline and 3 months after therapy. Cytokine profile was assessed at 0, 1 and 3 month to measure IL1-β, TNF-α and TGF-β on gingival crevicular fluid. RESULTS: No significant difference was detected on HbA1c, between treatments. The SRP + aPDT group showed advantage on reducing moderate pockets in single-rooted teeth at 3 months. SRP + aPDT presented better results at 3 months on IL1-β levels. There were no significant differences between TNF-α and TGF-β. CONCLUSIONS: Both treatments improved clinical and systemic outcomes (Hba1c). SRP + aPDT performed better in moderate probing pocket depth on single-rooted teeth, reduced favourably inflammation in short term, and may be an alternative to systemic antibiotics. (Clinicaltrials.org ID NCT01595594).