Clinical efficacy of biodegradable dental implants of tinidazole in periodontitis

Dental implants of tinidazole were formulated using poly (ε- caprolactone), a biodegradable polymer and evaluated. Clinical evaluation was carried out in ten patients with acute periodontitis. Various clinical parameters viz., gingival index, plaque score, attachment gain, reduction in pocket depth were evaluated after 10, 20, 30 and 40 days of treatment and compared with placebo as control. There was significant improvement in the healing of periodontal pockets treated with tinidazole implants as compared to the control sites. Estimation of tinidazole in gingival crevicular fluid (GCF) revealed that the drug levels above the minimum inhibitory concentration (5.9 μg/mg) for many of the periodontal pathogens was maintained throughout the period of study (40 days). This confirms the clinical efficacy of the dose and the duration of the study. It was found that biodegradable carrier was better accepted than the non-biodegradable carriers reported earlier.