Objective: To assess the effects of adjunctive use of systemic antibiotics in nonsurgical periodontal treatment compared to nonsurgical periodontal treatment alone, on mean glycated hemoglobin (HbA1c) reductions in patients with diabetes.
Data: Two independent reviewers screened six electronic databases, registers of clinical trials, meeting abstracts and four major dental journals for controlled clinical trials with at least 3-month follow-up.
Sources: After duplicates removal, electronic and hand searches yielded 2136 records; 32 full-text articles were independently read by two reviewers. To evaluate the additional effect of antibiotic usage, pooled weighted mean differences and 95% confidence intervals were calculated using fixed and random effects models.
Study selection: Twelve studies met the inclusion criteria, nine of which provided data that allowed their inclusion in meta-analyses. The meta-analyses showed no significant effect favouring scaling and root planing (SRP) plus antibiotic for reductions in mean HbA1c (-0.11% [-0.35, 0.13]; 6 studies), and an estimated prediction interval varying from -0.45 to 0.23. There was also no significant effect favouring the adjunctive usage of sub-antimicrobial doxycycline in HbA1c mean reduction (-0.19% [-1.04, 0.67]; 2 studies).
Conclusion: Adjunctive use of systemic antibiotic provides no statistically significant benefit in terms of HbA1c improvement in periodontal treatment of patients with diabetes.
Clinical significance: Adjunctive use of systemic antibiotics associated with nonsurgical periodontal treatment provides no additional benefit in terms of HbA1c of diabetic patients. Clinicians should weigh the trade-off between risks and benefits provided by the use of systemic antibiotics before prescribing them for periodontal disease treatment.
Keywords: Antibiotics; Diabetes mellitus; Glycated hemoglobin; Periodontitis; Systematic review.
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