Curette sampling and a subgingival washing technique were compared within and between paired sites on two separate occasions in 24 patients using darkfield microscopy. Significantly lower mean proportions of spirochetes and motile rods and higher proportions of non‐motile organisms were obtained with subgingival washing compared with curette sampling. There were no significant differences in the proportions of bacterial morphotypes between sites in the same patient sampled by the same technique. Although various methods of sampling may be more appropriate in certain clinical circumstances, they may produce quite differing results in both darkfield and cultural studie
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