Apical curettage as a treatment of acute periapical inflammation

In 16 incisors, one canine, and one premolar with an acute periapical infection which had perforated the cortical bone, an apical curettage was carried out. During the treatment and the following 5 days, the patients were protected with antibiotic therapy. The curettage was performed through a slightly arched incision, convex toward the gingival margin. At the same sitting, a guttapercha root filling was made in the conventional way. Irrespective of operation, which involved a somewhat larger than normal incision, no spread from local to general infection was found in any of the cases. The patients were free from pain and other symptoms of infection after one treatment. In the radiographic examinations carried out from 6 to 12 months and 3 years later, it was found that 50% of curetted roots showed complete healing, 33% were uncertain and 17% were unsatisfactory. Bone formation was most rapid during the first postoperative year, after which it decreased. The bone formation was also most rapid in larger lesions but decreased, even in these, when it advanced to the vicinity of the root.