Microbial Adherence of three different suture materials in patients undergoing periodontal flap surgery. A clinical & microbiological study

proliferation of microbes to the parts open to the oral cavity. Hence, microbial colonization on various intraoral suture materials from patients undergoing periodontal flap surgery and its impact on healing of gingival tissues was compared. Patients and Methods: During periodontal flap surgery, three different suture materials (silk, polyamide, & vicryl) were used in 25 patients. Eight days postoperatively, the sutures were removed, and adhered micro-organisms were counted by culturing on nutrient agar. Additionally clinical parameters, bleeding on probing and papillary position to assess healing were recorded to baseline, at 2 weeks, 4 weeks, and 6 weeks. Wilcoxon signed ranks test was used for statistical analysis. Results: Mean CFU’s for silk, polyamide and vicryl sutures were 6.239 ±1.476 X 108, 2.425 ± 1.010 X 108, 4.431 ± 1.069 X 108. There was no inter-group statistical difference in the clinical parameters i.e. bleeding on probing, papillary position at all time periods (p>0.05). There was a significant statistical improvement in bleeding on probing in all the three groups from base line (p<0.05). Conclusions: The results of the present study demonstrated that bacteria have different affinity towards different suture materials. Monofilament polyamide suture adhered the least amount of bacteria, followed by multifilament vicryl suture, while silk adhered maximum amount of bacteria. There was no statistically significant difference in the healing of gingival tissues in between all the three groups. Keywords: Monofilament sutures, Multifilament sutures, Colony forming units, Periodontal flap surgery