The purpose of this study was to investigate the use of systemic metronidazole in periodontal patients. Plaque was removed and studied in each quadrant of each patient thus totaling 4 samples per 5 patients. The total count and B. asaccharolyticus were obtained. A second plaque sample obtained from the same sampling day was viewed by dark field microscopy for the presence of spirochetes.
Case reports for each patient are presented.
The authors state that these values are consistent with disease activity. The 1 week treatment with metronidazole caused an improvement on the periodontal health of the most diseased sites in each of the patients despite the absence of OHI and a minimal amount of mechanical debridement. The two patients that were mechanically debrided exhibited the best response of all the patients. Also as expected, the greatest improvement occurred in the deepest pockets. At 6 months the degree of improvement was beyond that of reported results with tetracycline.