In this study, the clinical efficacies of systemic doxycycline (SD) and local doxycycline (LD) in the treatment of chronic periodontitis were compared. Forty-five patients were studied in 3 main groups with 5 treatments: SD alone, SD+scaling-root planing (SD+SRP), LD alone, LD+SRP and SRP alone. Antibiotic-treated patients were given doxycycline treatment alone in 1 quadrant of their upper jaws, and doxycycline+SRP was given in the contralateral quadrant. The areas included at least 4 teeth with ≥ 5 mm pockets. Probing depth (PD), clinical attachment level, gingival index, sulcular bleeding index and plaque index values were recorded at baseline and the 7 th week. The results were statistically analyzed. All of the clinical parameters were significantly reduced by all treatments (P ≤ 0.05). The SD and LD treatments alone provided significant clinical healings. The significant differences among the groups were only in PD at the 7th week. The LD treatment provided significantly higher PD reduction than the SD treatment (P ≤ 0.05). No significant difference was found between the SD+SRP and the LD+SRP treatments. There was no significant difference between SD+SRP and SRP alone treatment (P > 0.05). The SD group showed lower PD reduction than SRP group (P ≤ 0.05), while no significant difference was found between LD and SRP treatments. The LD alone treatment seemed more effective than SD alone treatment on PD reduction, but no significant difference was found between them when combined with the SRP. LD may be more preferable than SD as an adjunct to mechanical treatment since LD seems more effective than SD on PD reduction and does not have the side effects of SD. (J. Oral Sci. 46, [25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32][33][34][35] 2004) Key Words: tetracycline; systemic doxycycline; local doxycycline; periodontal treatment; local drug delivery; chronic periodontitis.
IntroductionCurrently, periodontal disease is accepted as an infection of the periodontium since the primary etiologic factor is bacteria, which triggers the host immune response and the consequent tissue destruction. Because of its infectious nature, in a biological view, the main target for periodontal treatment must be the suppression of the effective bacteria (1,2). In light of this conceptual development, it recently has been considered that mechanical treatment alone is insufficient in the periodontal treatment strategy. Antimicrobial therapy, especially antibiotic treatment, is of special importance as an adjunct to mechanical periodontal treatment (1,3,4).To date, the most widely used antibiotics in the treatment of periodontal disease have been tetracyclines since they show the highest concentrations in gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) and are highly effective on Actinobacillus Actinomycetemcomitans (Aa) (5,6). Recently, some nonJournal of Oral Science, Vol. 46, No. 1, 25-35, 2004 7,8). In one of the studies, patients with moderate chronic periodontitis were administered doxycycline for 2 weeks prior to a full-thickness flap procedur...