Minimally invasive surgery: an alternative approach for periodontal and implant reconstruction

Minimally invasive surgery is defined as a procedure involving a smaller access opening and less-extensive surgical manipulation of the tissues that surround the target structure. It represents a rapidly advancing and expanding therapeutic modality in medicine and dentistry. Minimally invasive surgery has been touted as one of the major advances in medicine of the past two to three decades. The revolution in this field has been made possible by technological advances in imaging, instrumentation, and robotics. These advances have been driven in part by patient demand. Today's patients lead a busy and active lifestyle, and prolonged periods of convalescence are not acceptable for many. Therefore, the advent of minimally invasive surgery has promoted increased patient acceptance, which result from decreased morbidity associated with the minimally invasive surgery approaches.