Comparison of Minimally Invasive and Conventional Flap Surgery for Treatment of Intrabony Periodontal Defects: A Pilot Case Controlled Study

The purpose of this study was to compare the clinical outcomeof conventional flap surgery and minimally invasive surgery forthe regenerative treatment of periodontal intrabony defects in aprospective, case-controlled study design. For this purpose, ninehealthy individuals with 15 periodontal intrabony defects wereincluded in the study. Patients were randomly assigned toundergo either minimally invasive surgery or conventional flapsurgery for treatment of their intrabony periodontal defect. Eachpatient had preoperative and postoperative X-ray andmeasurement of periodontal parameters by a blinded examiner.All bony defects were treated with allograft consisting of enamelmatrix derivative and demineralized freeze-dried bone. Resultsof this study indicated that both minimally invasive andconventional flap surgery improved pocket depth and clinicalattachment levels after 6 months of surgery with no significantdifference between the two surgeries. The overall result of ourstudy suggests that minimally invasive surgery is as effectiveas conventional flap surgery in the treatment of intrabonyperiodontal defects and that both techniques appear to providea comparable outcome.