Effects of Periodontal Instrumentation on Quality of Life and Illness in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease: a Pilot Study

Purpose: To assess if patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) receiving periodontal debridement for treatment of chronic periodontitis with ultrasonic or hand instrumentation experienced changes in quality of life or incidents of illness following treatment or no treatment.

Methods: The study design was a 3 group, randomized, controlled pre- and post-test experimental pilot study. Volunteers with COPD and chronic periodontitis (n=30) were recruited from physician offices or fliers and randomly assigned to 1 of 3 groups. Of those, 2 groups had periodontal debridement using either magnetostrictive ultrasonic instrumentation (n=10) or hand instrumentation (n=10). A control group (n=10) received no treatment. Primary outcomes, quality of life and illness were measured by the St. George's Respiratory Questionnaire (SGRQ-A) and Illness Questionnaire, respectively. Subjects completed the questionnaires as pre-tests at baseline and as post-tests 4 weeks post-treatment/no treatment. Repeated measures ANOVA was used to compare groups on continuous variables (p ≤ 0.05) measured by SGRQ-A total scores and symptoms, activities and impacts subscales. Percentages, frequencies and cross tabulations were calculated for categorical data.

Results: SGRQ-A and Illness Questionnaire scores showed no significant differences between groups in quality of life or illness following periodontal debridement. Total SGRQ-A scores decreased slightly for all groups with no significant difference among groups (p=0.138) and no interaction (p=0.794). Cross tabulations showed no relationship between indicators of self-reported illness before and after treatment/no treatment. No adverse events were reported.

Conclusion: Based on this small-scale study, it seems periodontal debridement for chronic periodontitis has no effect on quality of life and illness in patients with COPD, and it may be performed with ultrasonic or hand instruments without adverse events.