Comparison of surgical and nonsurgical treatment of periodontal disease. A review of current studies and additional results after 61/2 years.

Many well designed clinical studies have established the effectiveness of periodontal therapy. Surgical procedures have been shown to be effective in treating periodontitis when followed by appropriate maintenance care. Scaling and root planing alone have recently been compared to scaling and root planing plus soft tissue surgery in several longitudinal trials.

A randomized four-years study of periodontal therapy.

The purpose of this study was to compare the long term effectiveness of scaling and root planing alone to scaling and root planing followed by periodontal surgery. Seventeen subjects with moderate to advanced periodontitis received through scaling and root planing as well as oral hygiene instruction. A modified Widman flap was then randomly performed for one-half of each subject's dentition.