Responses of Four Tooth and Site Groupings to Periodontal Therapy

T he responses of four tooth/site groupings to periodontal therapy were evaluated. Eighty‐two patients with periodontitis were treated in a split mouth design with coronal scaling, root planing, modified Widman surgery, and flap with osseous resectional surgery. Patients were evaluated prior to therapy, 4 weeks post‐Phase I therapy, 10 weeks post‐Phase II therapy, and at yearly intervals during 2 years of maintenance therapy. The tooth/site groupings evaluated were: 1) interproximal sites of single rooted teeth (T1), 2) facial and lingual sites of single rooted teeth (T 2 ), 3) nonfurcation sites of molar teeth (T 3 ), and 4) furcation sites of molar teeth (T 4 ). Following 2 years of maintenance, no clinically significant differences in probing depth reduction or probing attachment loss were present between the four tooth/site groupings in 1 mm to 4 mm sites. T 2 had the greatest decrease of probing depth in 5 mm to 6 mm sites followed by T1, T3 and T4. T 1 and T 2 showed a greater gain of probing attachment followed by T 3 and then T 4 . T 1 and T 2 had the greatest decrease of probing followed by T 3 which was greater than T 4 in ≥ 7 mm sites. T4 had significantly less probing attachment gain than the other groups. There was a trend for T 1 and T 2 to have less gingival bleeding post‐therapy and for T 2 to have less plaque accumulation than the other groups at both pre‐ and post‐therapy examinations. J Periodontol 1990; 61:173–179.