Amoxicillin/metronidazole or scaling and root planing in the treatment of chronic periodontitis.

UNLABELLED: The aim of the present study was to evaluate the treatment with amoxicillin or metronidazole in comparison to scaling and root planing in the treatment of chronic periodontitis. Randomised clinical trials were searched in the databases MEDLINE, EMBASE, SciELO, Cochrane and Scopus from 1989 to 2010. The search started with 2895 articles. From this initial number of articles, 10 publications were selected and included in the study according to fixed criteria. Studies included adult patients of both sexes aged between 21 and 80, diagnosed with chronic periodontitis and treated with amoxicillin and/or metronidazole or scaling and root planning. From each article, details were abstracted relating to sample size, design, sex, age, oral hygiene habits, the exposure to drug (doses, schedule), and results such as clinical effect, analysis methods, stratification variables.

CONCLUSION: this meta-analysis showed absence of statistically significant difference between the effects studied.