Intrasulcular laser Doppler readings before and after root planing

A reproducible and sensitive laser Doppler periodontal probe has recently been developed for intrasulcular measurement of gingival blood flow. The specific aims of this investigation were to determine the relation between intrasulcular laser Doppler readings (LDR) and traditional diagnostic criteria as well as to evaluate the response to root planning in terms of LDR and traditional criteria. LDR and clinical measurements (bleeding on probing (BOP), probing depth (PD) and clinical attachment loss (CAL) were obtained from 2 healthy and 2 diseased sites in 30 systemically healthy adult volunteers with localized moderate to advanced periodontitis. All 30 subjects were re-examined 1 month following root planing while 10 subjects were re-examined at approximately 1 year after treatment. Subject-adjusted correlations between pretreatment LDR and PD as well as LDR and CAL were 0.74 and 0.71, respectively. 1 month following root planing, the diseased sites had undergone a significant reduction in LDR and PD with an accompanying gain in CAL. Prior to treatment, 95 of 120 sites (79%) agreed on an ordinal classification (high, low) for LDR and BOP. Mantel-Haenszel common odds ratios for agreement between LDR and BOP were 9.6 pre-treatment and 4.3 one month after treatment. A slight rebound of all measurements was noted in a group of 10 subjects followed for 1 year. It was concluded that the laser Doppler periodontal probe is an unbiased non-invasive method of monitoring the response to periodontal therapy.