Comparison of clinical outcomes of non-surgical adjunctive use of the 980-nm diode laser to conventional periodontal flap procedure—a randomised controlled split-mouth clinical trial

Lasers have been found to be effective as an adjunctive in periodontal therapy. The objective of the study was to compare the outcomes of non-surgical adjunctive use of 980-nm diode laser to that of conventional flap surgery in terms of clinical outcome measures and radiographic osseous defect depths. This study was designed as a double-blinded split-mouth randomised controlled clinical trial. A total of fifteen patients (30 quadrants) with generalised periodontitis stage III grade B were randomly assigned test group (diode laser) and control group (conventional flap surgery). Both test and control groups had 15 quadrants each. At 3 months, the probing pocket depth (PPD) was 3.46 ± 0.19 mm (test) and 4.20 ± 0.20 mm (control), with a statistically significant difference between the groups ( p = 0.01). Similarly, at 6 months re-evaluation, PPD was 1.46 ± 0.12 mm (test) and 2.33 ± 0.13 mm (control) with a highly significant statistical difference ( p = 0.001). Plaque index showed a difference between both test and control groups at baseline, 3 months and 6 months ( p = 0.001) while gingival index, modified sulcular bleeding index and radiographic osseous defect depth showed a difference at 3 months and 6 months ( p = 0.001). Within the study’s limitations, 980-nm diode laser can result in significant improvements in the clinical and radiographic parameters and is very well tolerated by the subjects.