Biomimetic ceramics for periodontal regeneration in infrabony defects: A systematic review

Biomimetic materials are widely used in the treatment of osseous defects as an alternative to autogenous bone graft. The aim of this article was to review the literature and compare the quality of published articles on biomimetic ceramic material used for periodontal regeneration in the treatment of infrabony defects and to discuss the future direction of research. The bibliographic databases PubMed, Ebsco, and Google Scholar were searched from January 2000 to March 2014 for randomized control trials in which biomimetic ceramic graft material was compared with open flap debridement or in combination with any other regenerative material. To avoid the variability of the search terms, the thesaurus Mesh was used. The primary outcome variable assessed was clinical attachment level (CAL). The screening of eligible studies, assessment of the methodological quality of the trials, and data extraction were performed by two observers independently. Twenty-six articles were identified and included in this systematic review. The primary outcome was CAL. Out of the 26 studies, 24 showed more than 2 mm of CAL gain. The difference in CAL change between test and control groups varied from 1.2 mm to 5.88 mm with respect to different biomaterials/biomimetic materials, which was clinically and statistically significant. Meta-analysis was not done due to heterogeneity in results between studies. Overall, biomaterials were found to be more effective than open flap debridement in improving the attachment levels in intraosseous defects. Future research should aim at increasing the osteoinductive capacity of these biomimetic graft materials.