Evaluation of adjunctive tetracycline fiber therapy with scaling and root planing: short-term clinical results.

The purpose of this single-blind, randomized study was to evaluate the clinical efficacy of slow-release tetracycline fibers as an adjunct to initial periodontal therapy in moderate to advanced periodontitis patients who had no periodontal treatment before. A group of 17 patients with at least two sites in each quadrant with probing pocket depths > 5 mm that bled on probing were included in the study. After scaling and root planing, each selected site was randomly assigned to one of two treatment groups: tetracycline fiber therapy and control group. Plaque index, gingival index, bleeding on probing, probing pocket depth, and clinical attachment level were measured at baseline and at 1, 3, and 7 weeks. The change from the baseline of each measurement was studied using analysis of variance with subject and treatment effects and a baseline covariate. Results of this investigation demonstrated that tetracycline fiber treatment as adjunct to scaling and root planing is effective in regard to probing pocket depth reduction and bleeding on probing. On the other hand, fiber application seems to have no beneficial effect on gain of clinical attachment level within limits of this study.