Reactions: Antibacterial and bioactive dental restorative materials: Do they really work?

PURPOSE: The study and development of antibacterial materials for use in dental applications is growing with the development of novel materials and procedures. Examination of the effects of such antibacterial materials on oral pathogens as well as on stability and longevity of dental restorations is of paramount importance to the field. RESULTS: This review addressed the range of topics covered by the manuscripts presented at the Seoul symposium on antibacterial dental materials. CLINICAL SIGNIFICANCE: Based on the presented works, it seems that the emerging antibacterial and bioactive mate-rials can potentially benefit restorative dentistry; however, like many other subjects in clinical dentistry, good quality evidence on their effectiveness under clinical situations is yet to be accumulated.

Gingival curettage study comparing a laser treatment to hand instruments.

The purpose of this clinical study was to examine nonsurgical treatments of periodontal disease comparing a diode laser to subgingival curettage with conventional hand instruments. The study group comprised 18 patients with moderate periodontal degradation who were treated without local anesthesia. Each quadrant was randomly allocated in a split-mouth design either to treatment with a 810-nm diode laser using an energy of 2 W (test group) or to gingival curettage using hand instruments (control group). Clinical data, including plaque index (PI), gingival index (GI), sulcus bleeding index (SBI), pocket depth (PD), clinical attachment level (CAL) and visual analog scale (VAS) score were acquired prior to and 4 weeks after treatment. The treatment time for each tooth was also recorded. The results demonstrated a statistically significant reduction of the GI, SBI and PD and a significant gain in CAL in both groups after 4 weeks. However, there were no significant differences between the test and control groups for the above data. The score for the degree of treatment discomfort was significantly lower and the average treatment time was significantly less in the test group than in the control group. Diode laser subgingival curettage resulted in statistically significant improvements in PD, SBI, GI and CAL with less discomfort and treatment time compared to treatment with the hand instruments.