Povidone-iodine in combination with scaling and root planning (SRP) can reduce pocket depths of periodontitis patients more than SRP alone, according to a review article in the Journal of Periodontal Research (published online ahead of print, Nov. 9, 2009).
Reviewers at the University of Zurich, the Hospital of Zurich, and Johns Hopkins School of Public Health studied electronic data bases for randomized controlled trials and produced a meta-analysis. They found that most of the studies were of poor quality, and the treatment modalities varied.
Still, there was no significant heterogeneity between studies (I2 = 0%). And the researchers determined that using povidone-iodine has a small but statistically significant additional reduction of 0.28 mm (95% confidence interval: 0.08 to 0.48, p = 0.007).
Single-rooted teeth particularly benefited, especially when the treatment was repeated during the healing stage, they noted.
