The effect of cigarette smoking on the long-term success of guided tissue regeneration: a preliminary study

Regenerative therapy has provided the clinician with an alternative to traditional procedures such as osseous surgery. However, there is a deficiency of data and research on long-term success of guided tissue regeneration (GTR). The purpose of this paper is to report the findings of a preliminary long-term clinical study of GTR in Class II furcation defects. In a private practice setting, 38 e-PTFE barrier membranes were placed in 38 periodontal Class II furcation lesions in patients diagnosed with chronic adult periodontitis (1 defect per patient). These patients were followed from 4 to 7 years. There were 21 maxillary Class II furcation defects and 17 mandibular Class II furcation defects. All patients had a non-contributory medical history; however, in retrospective examination, many of these patients smoked at least 10 cigarettes per day for at least 5 years. In this study, results after 4 to 7 years revealed a 58 per cent success rate and a 42 per cent failure rate: 80 per cent of the failures were in smokers. In this study, GTR in furcation defects was not as successful as previously reported in the literature from a clinical point of view and the success rate was significantly lower when a patient was a smoker.