Long-term results of a minimally invasive surgical approach for bone grafting.

A retrospective analysis of the results obtained from regenerative surgery performed utilizing a minimally invasive surgical approach was performed. Bone grafting procedures were performed at 194 sites in 87 patients using small incisions and minimal flap reflection. There were 44 females with a mean age of 52.7 years and 43 males with a mean age of 54.9 years. The mean healing time at which data were collected was 21.7 months. Postsurgical data were collected at the time of routinely scheduled supportive periodontal therapy (SPT) appointments by 2 evaluators. Mean changes in probing depth and attachment levels were evaluated utilizing a Wilcoxon sign rank test. Mean improvement in probing depth was 4.58 mm (P <0.0001) and attachment level was 4.87 mm (P <0.0001). These improvements were seen for all levels of initial prognosis (good to poor) and appeared to be stable over time. The postsurgical gingival margin was at or within 1 mm of the cemento-enamel junction (CEJ) for 58% of the sites treated. This was interpreted to indicate good retention of soft tissue height postsurgically. It was concluded that the minimally invasive approach for bone grafting yielded results that were equivalent to more traditional surgical approaches utilizing longer incisions and greater reflection.