Local chemotherapeutics as an adjunct to scaling and root planing

Gingival diseases are the most widely held diseases in America. In some patients, periodontal disease appears in a generalized form, but more often it appears in localized areas. Furthermore, after treatment with scaling and root planing (SRP) in generalized cases, the disease is often reduced to a few local areas in the patient's mouth. Since periodontitis is a bacterial infection with known pathogenic microorganisms, the local delivery of antimicrobials has been considered to be a possible solution for treating and controlling localized forms of periodontal disease. Three current local chemotherapeutic agents are reviewed in this paper: doxycycline gel, chlorhexidine chip and minocycline microspheres. With the advancement of local drug delivery systems, clinicians and their patients have new alternatives for treatment of periodontal disease.