Professional Brushing Following Shortened Outreach Periodontal Therapy in Nursing Home Residents: A Prospective Extension Study With Historical Comparisons

Aims

To substantiate the effectiveness of shortened outreach periodontal therapy in nursing home residents with periodontitis, we evaluated additional professional brushing every two weeks in a prospective extension study using historical comparison groups from a previously published randomized controlled trial. Methods and results: Participants receiving shortened outreach periodontal therapy with additional professional brushing every two weeks (intervention with brushing, IWB) were prospectively enrolled and compared with historical participants from a previously published randomized trial, including an intervention-only group (IO) and untreated controls. Primary outcome: bleeding on probing (BOP); secondary outcomes: plaque index (PI), probing pocket depth (PPD). Assessments were made at baseline and three months. Fifty-four participants (18 per group) were included. At three months, only IWB reduced BOP compared with baseline (ΔBOP -20 ± 20 percentage points; p = 0.002), with greater reductions than controls (p < 0.001) but not IO (p = 0.203). Both PI and PPD decreased with IWB (p = 0.005 and p = 0.001 vs. baseline, respectively) and IO (p = 0.014 and p = 0.005), but not in controls. The reduction in PPD (but not PI) was greater with IWB and IO than in controls (p < 0.001).