Healing after treatment of periodontal intraosseous defects. V. Effect of root planing versus flap surgery.

The present study compared surgical therapy to root planing alone in the treatment of periodontal intraosseous defects. 25 defects in 14 patients were subjected to root planing only and another 25 defects in the same patients were surgically exposed and citric acid treated. The healing response was evaluated 6 months after treatment. The mean gain of probing attachment level was 0.8 mm in the root-planed defects as compared to 1.3 mm for the surgically exposed and acid-treated defects. The probing bone level improved an average of 0.2 mm for the root-planed areas as compared to 0.6 mm for the acid-treated defects. The mean preoperative probing pocket depths of 6.7 mm and 6.8 mm for the 2 groups were reduced to 5.2 mm and 4.1 mm, respectively. The differences in these parameters were statistically significant between the 2 groups. However, both groups demonstrated limited regeneration.