Immediate efficacy of diode laser application in the treatment of dentine hypersensitivity in periodontal maintenance patients: a randomized clinical trial.

BACKGROUND: To evaluate the immediate efficacy in the reduction of dentine hypersensitivity (DH) when applying an 810 nm diode laser (DL), and a 10% potassium nitrate bioadhesive gel (NK10%). MATERIAL AND METHODS: Forty-five consecutive periodontal maintenance patients of both sexes, with a DH >or= 2 on the verbal rating scale (VRS) in one or more teeth, were randomly allocated into three equal groups: 15 patients received DL and placebo gel; 15 patients were tested with a placebo laser and NK10%; and the remaining 15 received a placebo laser and placebo gel. The DH was evaluated at the start of the study, 15 and 30 min. after the laser application, and on days 2, 4, 7, 14, 30 and 60 by a blind examiner. RESULTS: After 15 min., observations showed a reduction in DH after an evaporative stimulus (ES) of 36.9% (0.86), three times greater than that of the control group (0.23) (p=0.008). After 14 days, this effect was even greater [DL 71.7% (1.67)/NK10% 36.3% (1.73)/control 28.1% (0.73); p=0.004], and lasted until day 60 [65.7% (1.53)/30.4% (0.73)/25.8% (0.67); p=0.01]. CONCLUSIONS: The DL and NK10% gel were proven effective in the treatment of DH. A significantly greater immediate response was observed with DL.

Detection of periodontal bacteria in atheromatous plaque by nested polymerase chain reaction.

BACKGROUND: In recent years, increasing evidence regarding the potential association between periodontal diseases and cardiovascular diseases has been identified. The available evidence underlines the importance of detecting periodontal pathogens on atheromatous plaque as the first step in demonstrating the causal relationship between the two conditions. The main aim of this investigation is to detect periodontitis-associated bacteria from carotid artery atheromatous plaque from patients who received an endarterectomy using strict sample procurement and laboratory procedures. METHODS: Atheromatous plaque from endarterectomies from carotid arteries were scraped and homogenized, and bacterial DNA was extracted. To obtain a representative concentration of amplicons, two amplifications of the bacterial 16S ribosomal-RNA gene were carried out for each sample with universal eubacteria primers by a polymerase chain reaction (PCR). A nested PCR with specific primers for the target bacteria was performed next. Statistical tests included the χ(2) test. RESULTS: Forty-two atheromatous plaque were analyzed. All of them were positive for ≥1 target bacterial species. The bacterial species most commonly found was Porphyromonas gingivalis (78.57%; 33 of 42), followed by Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans (previously Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans) (66.67%; 28 of 42), Tannerella forsythia (previously T. forsythensis) (61.90%; 26 of 42), Eikenella corrodens (54.76%; 23 of 42), Fusobacterium nucleatum (50.00%; 21 of 42), and Campylobacter rectus (9.52%; four of 42). The simultaneous presence of various bacterial species within the same specimen was a common observation. CONCLUSION: Within the limitations of this study, the presence of DNA from periodontitis-associated bacteria in carotid artery atheromatous plaque retrieved by endarterectomy is confirmed.