Assessment of alveolar bone changes in response to minimally invasive periodontal surgery: A cone-beam computed tomographic evaluation

PURPOSE: The aim of this study was to evaluate 3-dimensional cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) images of alveolar bone changes in patients who underwent minimally invasive periodontal surgery-namely, the pinhole surgical technique (PST). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Alveolar bone height was measured and compared on CBCT images of 254 teeth from 23 consecutive patients with Miller class I, II, or III recession who had undergone PST. No patient with active periodontal disease was selected for surgery. Two different methods were used to assess the alveolar bone changes postoperatively. In both methods, the distance between the apex of the tooth and the mid-buccal alveolar crestal bone on pre- and post-surgical CBCT studies was measured. RESULTS: An average alveolar bone gain >0.5 mm following PST was identified using CBCT (P=0.05). None of the demographic variables, including sex, age, and time since surgery, had any significant effect on bone gain during follow-up, which ranged from 8 months to 3 years. CONCLUSION: PST appears to be a promising treatment modality for recession that results in stable clinical outcomes and may lead to some level of resolution on the bone level. More long-term studies must be done to evaluate the impact of this novel technique on bone remodeling and to assess sustained bone levels within a larger study population.