Comparison of Surgical Instrumentation Systems for Minimally Invasive Periodontal Surgery

Objective: Compare two surgical instrument systems for performing minimally invasive periodontal surgery (MIS).

Methods: A traditional instrument system (TS) for performing MIS consisting of surgical telescopes for visualization and the D'Granulator ® for tissue removal was compared to a new instrument system (NS) consisting of a videoscope for visualization and a recently developed tissue removing bur for granulation tissue removal. Five experienced periodontal surgeons evaluated each system on an anatomical mannequin and porcine jaws (n=5). In the mannequin, the ability to visualize and access a mock surgical area similar to that encountered in human surgery was evaluated. In the porcine jaws, the ability to visualize the surgical site and to remove interproximal connective tissue was evaluated. Surgeons evaluated each site on a scale of 1 (unsatisfactory) to 100 (excellent) for visualization, access, and tissue removal. Repeated measures ANOVA (SPSS MIXED) was performed.

Results: In both the models, all surgeons rated the NS (mean score 88.92 SD 5.34) superior to the TS (mean score 66.53 SD 8.26). This was true for visualization (p<.001) and tissue removal (p<.001). These results were unambiguous for all surgeons with the NS scoring consistently higher than the TS in visualization, access, and tissue removal for all sites in all test models.

Conclusions: NS was judged superior to TS. NS appears to represent an improvement in surgical instrumentation for performing MIS.

SBIR R43-DE017829-01A1