Role of antibiotics in generalized aggressive periodontitis: A review of clinical trials in humans

BACKGROUND: It is well-recognized fact that periodontal diseases are caused by multifactorial etiologies, in which microorganisms play an important role. An essential component of therapy is to eliminate or manage these pathogens. This has been traditionally accomplished through mechanical means by scaling and root planning which is ineffective in some of the aggressive periodontal diseases. These aggressive diseases involve particular groups of microorganisms which are not eliminated by mechanical means; and they require anti-infective therapy, which includes local and systemic antimicrobials. This approach of therapy is of interest to periodontist due to the aforementioned shortcomings of conventional methods. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A manual and electronic search was made for human studies up to March 2011 that presented clinical and microbiological data for the efficacy of a systemic antibiotics in generalized aggressive periodontitis along with scaling and root planning. A systematic approach was followed by two independent reviewers and included eligibility criteria for study inclusion, quality assessment, and determination of outcome measures, data extraction, data synthesis, and drawing of conclusion. RESULTS: Only three randomized controlled human trials qualified, and they concluded that both scaling and root planing (SRP) mono-therapy and SRP with antibiotics proves beneficial in improving clinical and microbiological parameters in aggressive periodontitis. Better results were seen in SRP with antibiotic groups as compared with SRP alone. CONCLUSION: Because of the insufficient quantity and heterogenecity of studies, no adequate evidence could be gathered to use the beneficial effects of these antibiotics along with SRP in aggressive periodontitis compared with SRP alone.