The aim of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of chlorhexidine
digluconate solution (CHX) as an adjunct to nonsurgical therapy (NPT) of
patients with chronic periodontitis (CP), by analyzing the presence and
quantity of periopathogenic microorganisms in subgingival biofilm. DNA was
extracted from the subgingival biofilm obtained from 40 patients with CP
divided into two groups (NPT+CHX and NPT alone as control) at baseline and 2
months after the therapy. The presence of selected periodontal pathogens (A.
actinomycetemcomitans, P. gingivalis, E. corrodens, T. denticola, and T.
forsythia) was determined by polymerase chain reaction (PCR), while total
bacterial load was assessed by quantitative PCR. The incidence of
microorganisms decreased following treatment, both with NPT+CHX and NPT
alone, but without reaching statistically significant difference in the NPT
group. In the NPT+CHX group, a significant reduction of prevalence of two
species: T. denticola (P = 0.008) and T. forsythia (P = 0.016), as well as
of total microorganism count (P = 0.002) was observed two months after
treatment. In conclusion, the present findings support the use of CHX as
adjunctive therapy in CP.
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