Maintenance therapy in young adults with severe generalized periodontitis.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate one year of maintenance therapy in young adults with severe periodontitis (SP) who had previously received periodontal therapy consisting of root planing and scaling followed by open flap debridement. Subjects were evaluated with clinical and microbiological measurements at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months following the completion of active therapy. Subjects were included in the study if they completed a minimum of two evaluation appointments. Monitoring of these subjects during the maintenance phase was analyzed by three methods. First, changes in mean attachment level and mean probing depth were calculated at 3-month intervals to determine if the subjects continued to lose or gain attachment and/or had periodontal pockets of increasing or decreasing depth. Second, the frequency of periodontal breakdown was determined and compared to breakdown rates of subjects in other patient populations. Third, future changes in attachment level were related to the presence or absence of two putative periodontal pathogens, Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans and Porphyromonas gingivalis in subgingival plaque. Mean attachment level remained constant in 13 subjects who completed one year of maintenance therapy. However, mean probing depth increased at a yearly rate of 0.19 mm and in periodontally-involved sites pocket depth increased at a yearly rate of 0.65 mm both of which were statistically significantly different from 0 (P < .05). The frequency of periodontal breakdown in this study was higher than reported in other similar studies of different periodontitis patient populations. The remainder of the data in the study was from 21 subjects who had completed at least two recall appointments.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)