Aim: The primary aim of this longitudinal study was to evaluate additional effects of 4-week
chlorhexidine digluconate (CHX) gel treatments to control
Aggregatibacter actinomycetemcomitans
counts in children after professional dental prophylaxis.
Porphyromonas gingivalis
and
Streptococcus
mutans
counts were also determined to evaluate the secondary effects of anti-plaque treatments on
microbial shifts.
Methods: Twenty-six children with
A. actinomycetemcomitans counts >4 log10/
mL of saliva and/or Quigley-Hein plaque index >3.0 were enrolled in this study. Patients were
randomly assigned to groups GI (placebo gel), GII (0.5% CHX gel), GIII (1% CHX gel), and GIV
(2% CHX gel). Four sessions of treatment were performed during 4 weeks after a session of
professional dental prophylaxis. Real-Time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) was used to
determine viable microorganism counts in non-stimulated whole saliva samples collected at
baseline, one week, one month and three months after interruption of treatments.
Results: A
reduction of all bacterial counts was detected after the 3-month follow-up in all groups. Lower
counts of
P. gingivalis were achieved from 1 week on after treatments. The 2% CHX concentration
seemed to contribute to lower
A. actinomycetemcomitans levels and increase
S. mutans levels.
Conclusions: Professional dental prophylaxis was effective to control salivary levels of
A.
actinomycetemcomitans,
P. gingivalis and
S. mutans. Additional antimicrobial effects, however,
were not observed by the combination of professional dental prophylaxis and 4-week chlorhexidine
gel treatments.