PERIODONTAL AND PERI-IMPLANT BONE REGENERATION - CLINICAL AND HISTOLOGIC OBSERVATIONS

The principle of guided tissue regeneration by barrier membranes to re store lost periodontal tissue around natural teeth has also been used around osseointegrated implants in an attempt to restore alveolar ridg e defects. While most periodontal procedures in the literature describ e roof coverage by mucogingival surgery, which achieves healing throug h soft tissue attachment, regeneration of denuded root surfaces is per formed by guided tissue regeneration using expanded polytetrafluoroeth ylene barrier membranes and demineralized freeze-dried bone allografts as inductive/conductive materials. In this study the technique is app lied in two partially exposed cylindrical hydroxyapatite-coated implan ts in extraction sites in one patient. Surgical reentry in both sites is presented with histologic examination revealing new bone formation on the exposed root surface and the hydroxyapatite-coated implants.