The gingival effects of dental airpolishing as evaluated by scanning electron microscopy.

An air-powder abrasive system was tested among 20 volunteers, who had healthy gingiva or slight gingivitis, but no periodontal pockets. Impressions of randomly selected areas (n = 103) were taken before and after airpolishing and positive replicas were prepared for scanning electron microscopy (SEM). Gingival bleeding increased statistically significantly (p less than 0.001) during the treatment. Also gingival erosive changes were increased when using airpolishing technique (p less than 0.001). The erosive changes observed by SEM and the subjective symptoms during and after the operation positively correlated to the presence of gingival inflammation (p less than 0.001). It can be concluded that also the negative aspects of the airpolishing technique should be taken into consideration, especially when operating near the gingival margin.