Experts meeting at Perio Workshop 2019 in November in La Granja de San Ildefonso, Spain, have developed an evidence-based and more effective guideline for treating stages I, II, and III of periodontitis, according to the European Federation of Periodontology (EFP).
The new guideline calls for a “stepped care approach,” which allows several steps in treatment to overlap so clinicians can deliver the least complex and resource-intensive therapy instead of following a sequential fixed order. This methodology only moves to more complex or intensive therapies if monitoring shows that they are clinically indispensable.
The four working groups of experts at Perio Workshop 2019 considered 15 systematic reviews and a position paper on different aspects of periodontal therapy for stages I, II, and III of periodontitis and the maintenance of the successfully treated periodontitis patient. They did not cover stage IV guidelines, which Perio Workshop 2020 will address next year.
As well as focusing on the scientific evidence supporting the different evaluated interventions, the experts considered their consistency and value, the clinical relevance of the outcomes, the balance of benefits and harms, patient preferences, and ethical, legal, economic, and practical considerations.
The workshop benefitted from the input from top-level specialists not only from the EFP but also from eight European scientific societies and organizations representing key groups within the dental profession, the EFP said, including:
- The European Federation of Conservative Dentistry
- The European Association of Dental Public Health
- The European Society for Endodontology
- The European Prosthodontic Association
- The Council of European Dentists
- The European Dental Hygienists’ Federation
- The European Dental Students’ Association
- The Platform for Better Oral Health
The new clinical guideline will be published in 2020 along with other related papers in a special open-access supplement of the Journal of Clinical Periodontology, which is the EFP’s flagship publication.
“Perio Workshop 2019 was an important step forward both for periodontitis patients and for oral healthcare professionals,” said Mariano Sanz, chair of Perio Workshop 2019.
“In the coming years, it will have a major impact on improving patient care by having identified the evidence supporting the different periodontal interventions, together with the adequate step-by-step approach to treatment approach,” said Sanz.
“The development of an EFP, S3-level, clinical practice guideline is a very important accomplishment for European periodontology,” said David Herrera, who will chair Perio Workshop 2020.
“We will now have a solid basis when designing the treatment plan in the management of patients with periodontitis stages I, II, and III. For stage IV periodontitis, we will need to wait another year, and the EFP Workshop Committee is already working on the preparations for the generation of a guideline for such a significant condition,” Herrera said.
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