The photodynamic therapy in teenagers halitosis: controlled clinical trial

Abstract

Halitosis, also known as bad breath, is a term used to describe an unpleasantand offensive odor emanating from the oral cavity, could originate in the mouthor systemic factors. It is considered a common problem that affects most of theworld population. The oral malodour is caused mainly by the volatile sulphurcompounds, produced by the action of anaerobic Gram-negative oralmicroorganisms on sulphur containing substrates found in the month. Lightalone or in combination with chemical compounds has been used for inducingtherapeutic and antimicrobial effects. At the photodynamic therapy theantimicrobial effect is confined only to both the areas covered by dyes and lightirradiated. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the antimicrobial effect of thephotodynamic therapy applied to teenager halitosis, whose age range from 14to 18 year old. Through a controlled clinical, quantitative and cross-over study,130 teenagers will be evaluated and randomly divided into three groups that willreceive different treatments: group 1 treatment with tongue cleaner, group 2 and3 photodynamic therapy applied in the dorsum and middle part of the tongue,group 4 and 5 combined treatment, tongue cleaner and photodynamic therapy.Through the gas chromatographic analysis (Oral Chroma TM), the halitosis willbe diagnosed on the same date as well as the beginning of the treatment.After the first treatment there will be three analyses more: one hour, 24 hourand a week after. In the statistical analysis will be applied the Q-Squared andFisher Exact Test; to compare the media will be applied the T-Student test andAnalysis of Variance (ANOVA); and for the analysis of the correlation betweencontinuous variables will be applied the Pearson test. For all analysis will beconsidered a significance level of 95% (p <0,05). (AU)