Clinical and Radiographic Outcomes of Adjunctive Phototherapy Versus Antibiotic Therapy Against Peri-Implant Diseases: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

Background: Peri-implantitis, an inflammatory condition in implant tissues, requires bacterial eradication and implant surface decontamination, with aPDT as a helpful surgical adjunct.Objective:This project was designed to investigate the effect of antibiotic therapy versus aPDT, as adjuncts to conventional mechanical debridement (MD), on the peri-implant clinical and/or radiographic parameters among patients with peri-implant diseases.Methods: A comprehensive search was conducted across electronic databases, including PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science, up to and including April 2023, without any restriction on the language and year of publication, focusing the following research question: "Does adjunctive aPDT improve the peri-implant clinical and/or radiographic parameters in treating peri-implant diseases compared to antibiotic therapy?" Statistical analysis was performed on peri-implant clinical [plaque index (PI), probing depth (PD), and bleeding on probing (BOP)] and radiographic parameters [marginal bone loss (MBL)]. The study included six randomized controlled trials and one clinical (nonrandomized) study.Results: The systematic review findings indicate that the application of aPDT as an adjunct to MD is equally effective as adjunctive antibiotic therapy in improving peri-implant clinical parameters and radiographic parameters in patients with peri-implant diseases. Only two studies were classified as having a low risk of bias (RoB), two were assessed as having an unclear RoB, and the remaining three studies were determined to have a high RoB. However, the meta-analysis results revealed no statistically significant difference in peri-implant PI, PD, and MBL scores between patients treated with adjunct aPDT or adjunct antibiotic therapy. Notably, there was a statistically significant difference favoring adjunct aPDT in peri-implant BOP values compared to the control group.Conclusions: Despite the limited number of included studies and the significant heterogeneity among them, the findings suggest that aPDT yields comparable peri-implant clinical and radiographic outcomes to adjunctive antibiotic therapy, as adjuncts to MD, for the potential treatment of peri-implant diseases.