Healing of furcation perforations in primate teeth after repair with decalcified freeze-dried bone: a longitudinal...

Furcation perforations were created in 18 maxillary and mandibular molars in three adult rhesus monkeys. The perforations were located in the center of the pulp chamber floor and were 1 mm in diameter and 3 mm in depth. Teflon was used as a negative control to cover the perforation site in three teeth and the bony defects in the other 15 teeth were filled with decalcified freeze-dried bone. At the end of the 6-month experimental period the gingival tissues were clinically healthy, there was normal sulcular probing depths around all teeth, and only one tooth demonstrated furcal bone loss, radiographically. The histological picture for the Teflon and decalcified freeze-dried bone groups was very similar. There was a layer of epithelium immediately beneath the perforation site and deep to this was fibrous connective tissue and bone. Chronic inflammation was present in the connective tissue of all 3 Teflon samples but in only 2 of the 15 decalcified freeze-dried bone samples. New bone formation was not observed in any of the samples.