Methods: Twenty individuals with at least four sites of 5-8mm pocket depths were treated with scaling and root planing therapy in a split-mouth design. One quadrant underwent traditional S/RP with tactile determination of calculus using an 11/12 explorer, while the other quadrant received S/RP treatment with endoscopic detection of calculus, which allowed the clinician to visualize subgingival areas magnified 46X on a monitor in real-time video. A Heft-Parker modified visual analogue scale (VAS) was used to measure perceived pain levels felt by subjects during subgingival visualization via a periodontal endoscope. A baseline of each subject's pain tolerance was determined from an initial VAS, which measured the perceived pain level during periodontal probing. Since patients expressing some level of dental anxiety generally express increased levels of pain, a pre-treatment survey was also given to determine each participant's level of dental anxiety in order to eliminate dental anxiety as a confounding factor in determining the expressed level of pain.
Results: The level of perceived pain was significantly lower with the Perioscope versus the probe (p=0.0023). Using the 170-millimeter VAS scale, the mean pain level during periodontal probing was 56.3, while the mean pain level during use of the Perioscope was 26.9. Patients who indicated some level of dental anxiety did express increased pain levels, but these levels were not statistically significant.
Conclusion: The pain experienced during use of a periodontal endoscope was very low, and, therefore, patient acceptance of the tool was positive. The results of this study support the use of the periodontal endoscope for deposit detection during periodontal therapy.