Intrapocket application of tea tree oil gel in the treatment of stage 2 periodontitis

• Published in: BMC oral health 2021-05, Vol.21 (1), p.239-10, Article 239
• Main Authors: Taalab, Maha R, Mahmoud, Sabah Abdelhady, Moslemany, Riham M El, Abdelaziz, Dania M
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Anti-inflammatory; Anti-inflammatory drugs; Antifungal agents; Antioxidants; Antiviral agents; Antiviral drugs; Biofilms; Care and treatment; Chronic Periodontitis - drug therapy; Connective tissue; Dental plaque; Dental Scaling; Dentistry; Disease; Dosage and administration; Drug delivery; Drug delivery systems; Drugs; Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay; Enzymes; Essential oils; Gingival Crevicular Fluid; Gingival index; Gum disease; Humans; Inflammation; Matrix metalloproteinase; Matrix metalloproteinase-8; Metalloproteinase; Neutrophil collagenase; Patients; Periodontitis; Periodontitis - drug therapy; Root Planing; Statistical analysis; Tea Tree Oil - therapeutic use; Tea tree oil gel; Teeth; Testing; Vehicles
• ISSN: 1472-6831; 1472-6831
• DOI: 10.1186/s12903-021-01588-y

The gold standard in treatment of periodontitis is mechanical removing of dental biofilm but using local delivery drugs as adjunctive to SRP is widely used to modulate inflammatory host and eradicate microbes. Tea tree oil (TTO) has a broad-spectrum antimicrobial, anti-inflammatory, antifungal, antiviral, antioxidant effect. This study aimed to assess clinically and biochemically the effect of intrapocket application of TTO (Melaleuca alternifolia) gel adjunctive to scaling and root planing (SRP) in the treatment of stage 2 (moderate) periodontitis and to correlate the biochemical levels with clinical response. A randomized, controlled clinical trial was conducted on thirty patients with stage 2 periodontitis. Patients were equally divided into two groups: Control Group treated with (SRP) alone and Test Group treated with SRP and locally delivered 5% TTO gel. Clinical assessment included pocket probing depth (PPD), clinical attachment loss (CAL), gingival index (GI) and bleeding on probing (BOP) measured at baseline and after 3 and 6 months. The level of matrix metalloproteinase-8 (MMP-8), in the gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) was also assessed at baseline and after1, 3 and 6 months by Enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) kit. Chi-square, Student t- tests, Mann-Whitney U test and Spearman correlation were the statistical tests used in the study. An improvement of all clinical and biochemical parameters was observed (at p