Minimally Invasive Surgery Periodontal Therapy for the Treatment of Intrabony Periodontal Defects: A Systematic Review

BACKGROUND: Minimally invasive therapeutic approaches have become the standard of care for many medical procedures. Conventional periodontal surgical therapies involve extensive tissue reflection, resulting in increased morbidity which stands to reason out that Minimally invasive surgery (MIS) approach for periodontal therapy would result in less morbidity and better esthetics for the patient. Thus, the aim of this review is to assess the clinical efficacy of MIS periodontal therapy compared to conventional access flap surgery for the treatment of intrabony periodontal defects. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An electronic and manual search was done to identify and collect studies evaluating MIS periodontal therapy for the treatment of intrabony periodontal defects in terms of periodontal probing depth (PPD) reduction, clinical attachment level (CAL) gain, and gingival recession (REC) with a minimum of 6 month follow-up published in English. Six studies which satisfied the inclusion criteria were included for the review and the data extracted. RESULTS: The six included studies contributed to a total of 193 patients who underwent 93 MIS therapies for treating intrabony defects with at least a 6-month follow-up. Clinical evaluation showed a PPD reduction ranging from 3.55 ± 0.88 mm to 5.2 ± 1.6 mm, while CAL gain ranged from 2.82 ± 1.19 mm to 4.5 ± 1.1 mm, while the change in gingival margin level ranged from 0.06 mm to 0.5 mm. Only one study directly compared single flap approach (SFA) (a type of MIS) to double flap approach (papilla preservation flap) which reported PPD reduction and CAL gain to be better in SFA. CONCLUSION: Even though the above evidence compels us to believe that minimally invasive periodontal surgery is less invasive, less time consuming, and less morbid, the lack of enough studies directly comparing MIS with conventional access flap surgeries suggest that these conclusions are arbitrary. Thus, there is currently an absence of adequate evidence to substantiate the beneficial effect of minimally invasive periodontal surgical approach compared to a conventional access flap surgery for the treatment of intrabony periodontal defects.