Collagen membrane barrier therapy to guide regeneration in Class II furcations in humans

This study was undertaken to evaluate the effectiveness of resorbable collagen membranes in guided tissue regeneration. The study participants were 38 adults with moderate to advanced periodontitis. Each patient had at least one Class II furcation defect which could serve as either a test or control tooth. The cases were randomized prior to selection, so that investigators did not known whether the patient would be a test case or a control case until the time of surgery. Sites were surgically exposed and measurements were recorded from the cemento-enamel junction (CEJ) directly coronal to the furcation area to the alveolar crest, and to the base of the defect. Horizontal furcation measurements were also made, using a color coded furcation probe. The test patients had a trimmed and shaped collagen membrane barrier placed over the prepared furcation area. The control patients received the identical surgical management, except that no collagen membrane barrier was placed. All patients received normal post-surgical care, and at 12 weeks post-surgery, were scheduled for re-entry surgery. The re-entry mucoperiosteal flaps were designed to expose the furcation area for measurements, as described above. There was clinical improvement in all measurements made in both the test and control patients over the 3-month period. The horizontal furcation measurement and the CEJ to base of alveolar defect measurements did yield a statistically significant improvement when comparing the test patients to the controls.