The comparative effectiveness of granules or blocks of superporous hydroxyapatite for the treatment of intrabony periodontal defects

The aim of the present controlled clinical study was to compare the clinical response of grafting superporous hydroxyapatite (HAp) granules to superporous HAp blocks in the treatment of human intrabony periodontal defects. Twenty interproximal intrabony osseous defects in 20 healthy, non-smoking subjects diagnosed with chronic periodontitis were included in this study. These twenty subjects were randomly assigned to either the HAp granule or the HAp block groups. Clinical and radiographic measurements were determined at baseline, 3, 6, 9 and 12-month postsurgical evaluation time periods. When compared to baseline, the 12-month results indicated both treatment procedures resulted in statistically significant favorable changes in probing depth (mean value: 3.5 mm versus 3.5 mm), clinical attachment level gain (3.2 mm versus 2.3 mm) and radiographic infrabony defect depth decrease (2.9 mm versus 2.5 mm) for HAp granule and HAp block grafting respectively. At 3and 6-months, the granule group, when compared to the block group, exhibited a statistically significantly more favorable clinical response in clinical attachment level (4.1 mm versus 5.9 mm, p < 0.05 at 3-months; 4.3 mm versus 6.5 mm, p < 0.01 at 6months). The present study demonstrated that both grafting of superporous HAp granules and grafting of HAp blocks were similarly successful in the treatment of human intrabony periodontal defects.