Subgingival ultrasonic instrumentation irrigated with essential oils in residual pockets – randomized controlled trial

The aim of this study was to evaluate the clinical effect of ultrasonic instrumentationirrigated with essential oils in the reduction of sites with a probing depth of 5 mm ormore. For this purpose, a randomized, double-blind, parallel-arm and placebocontrolledclinical trial was conducted. Sixty-four individuals with chronic periodontitiswere invited to participate in this study. The patients were randomly allocated to thetest group (irrigation with essential oils containing 0.064% Thymol, 0.092%Eucalyptol, 0.06% Methyl Salicylate, 0.042% Menthol and 21.6% Alcohol) or control(irrigation with placebo, 21% alcoholic solution). Probing pocket depth (PD), clinicalattachment level (CAL), gingival recession (R), bleeding on probing (BOP) andplaque index (PI) were assessed. The individual was considered the statistical unit.The differences between the groups and the alterations over the course of time wereanalyzed according to a generalized linear model (repeated measures analysis ofvariance). There was a significant reduction in PD (1.59mm test and 1.16mm control)and BOP (44.4% test and 52.62% control) and CAL gain (1.15mm test and 0.91mmcontrol) in both groups (p<0.001). However, there was no difference between groupsat the end of the trial. When sites with PD >7mm at baseline were analyzed, asignificant reduction in PD was observed in test (1.60mm, p = 0.004) and controlgroups (1.10mm, p = 0.0008), as well as a significant gain in CAL in test group only(test: 1.59mm, p<0.001; control: 0.71mm, p=0.051).