Bs. Lembariti et al., THE EFFECT OF A SINGLE SCALING WITH OR WITHOUT ORAL HYGIENE INSTRUCTION ON GINGIVAL BLEEDING AND CALCULUS FORMATION, Journal of clinical periodontology, 25(1), 1998, pp. 30-33
136 students of both sexes aged 14-18 years who were deprived of regul
ar dental care participated in a 22-month longitudinal study. All stud
ents underwent scaling of the assigned teeth in 2 quadrants according
to a randomised split-mouth design on contralateral quadrants, 2 group
s of students were formed, one group received oral hygiene instruction
(OHI), Follow-up examinations on gingival bleeding and calculus were
carried out 6, 12, and 22 months after the scaling session, The preval
ence of calculus on assigned teeth at baseline was high with a mean sc
ore of 1.10, At the end of the study, new calculus formation on scaled
teeth reached a mean score of 0.58. Formation of calculus still conti
nued on non-scaled teeth, but at a lower rate than on scaled teeth, Sc
aling resulted in an approximately 20% reduction of the gingival bleed
ing score which remained during the 22 months follow-up period, OHI ha
d no significant effect on the calculus and bleeding scores, Since the
effect of scaling alone on the gingival condition was small and the e
ffect of a single OHI negligible, the practice of occasional scaling w
ithout repeated OHI, which is commonly employed in developing countrie
s, should be considered as clinically irrelevant and of little use in
improving the standard of periodontal health.