Injectable platelet-rich fibrin polymerized with hydroxyapatite bone graft for the treatment of three-wall intrabony defects: A randomized control clinical trial

BACKGROUND: The study was aimed to compare and evaluate the clinical and radiographic outcomes of injectable platelet-rich fibrin (i-PRF) polymerized with hydroxyapatite (HA) bone graft and HA bone graft alone for treating three-wall intrabony defects (IBDs). MATERIALS AND METHODS: The trial was planned as a randomized, prospective clinico-radiographic study with inclusion of 34 three-wall IBDs in patients with stage III periodontitis. IBDs were assigned randomly to one of the groups, i.e., Group I – experimental (i-PRF + HA) and Group II – control (HA alone). At baseline and 6 and 9-month intervals, both the clinical and radiographic measurements were taken and baseline and 9-month data were tabulated and imported into SPSS 22 software. Student unpaired and paired t- tests were used to find significant differences (p<0.05). RESULTS: Both the groups showed substantial changes in all clinical and radiographic measures on comparison from baseline values. On intergroup comparison, the i-PRF + HA group reported significantly higher original defect resolution and original defect fill as compared to the HA group. CONCLUSION: i-PRF polymerized with HA graft has shown better results as compared to HA graft alone in three-wall IBDs and therefore can be used as a better possible alternative for the treatment of three-wall IBDs.