Minimal invasiveness in the surgical treatment of intraosseous defects: A systematic review

The modern approach to regenerative treatment of periodontal intraosseous defects should aim at maximizing the clinical outcomes while minimizing the invasiveness (pain, complications, aesthetic impairment, chair time, and costs) of the procedure. The present systematic review evaluated the effect of flap design, regenerative technology, and perioperative and postoperative adjunctive protocols on invasiveness. Overall, the results of the 13 included trials indicate that: (a) the elevation of a single (buccal or lingual) flap positively influences the intensity of postoperative pain and improves the quality of early wound healing compared with double flaps; (b) while the adjunctive use of a membrane is associated with significantly longer surgery-related chair time and higher postoperative pain, the adjunctive use of enamel matrix derivative at sites receiving a graft significantly reduces postoperative pain; also, graft materials showed no significant impact on invasiveness; (c) open flap debridement performed through the elevation of a single flap may lead to substantial clinical improvements of the lesion with reduced surgery-related chair time and costs, thus representing a promising alternative to regenerative treatment. However, for such an approach, a histological evaluation of the nature of the reconstructed tissues is still lacking, and the presurgery conditions (eg, probing depth, defect severity, and defect morphology), which may benefit in terms of invasiveness, have not yet been defined; and (d) intraoperative and postoperative low-level laser biostimulation of the defect site may favorably modulate the postoperative course.