The immediate efficacy of adjunctive doxycycline in treatment of localized juvenile periodontitis.

A randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study on the immediate clinical and microbiological efficacy of doxycycline (100 mg for 14 days) was carried out to determine the benefit of adjunctive medication in 16 patients with localized juvenile periodontitis. Measurements of gingival fluid flow, probing depths, bleeding on probing and suppuration were determined at 2 periodontal sites with and 2 without radiographic attachment loss, at weeks 0, 1, 3 and 8. Subgingival bacterial samples were taken with curettes from the same sites. Spirochaetes were searched for by dark-field microscopy. Actinobacillus actinomycetemcomitans, pigmented and non-pigmented Bacteroides spp., Capnocytophaga, Fusobacterium and Actinomyces spp. were cultured on various selective and non-selective media. Bacterial species found at least in 50% of the patients and comprising on average 5% or more of the cultivable flora were included in the analysis. Neither short-term clinical nor microbiological efficacy beyond that of a course of mechanical debridement alone was found by using systemic medication with doxycycline in patients with localized juvenile periodontitis.