Clinical and Radiographic Assessment of Periodontal Infrabony Defect Depth and Width and Their Correlation

Brief Background There is preliminary evidence of periodontal defect depth, number of walls and the width of infrabony defects exerting influence on the regenerative potential of particular therapeutic modality. Aim: To assess defect width and defect depth and their influence on pretreatment defect angle in patients affected with periodontal disease. Materials and Methods 60 untreated severe chronic or aggressive periodontitis patients were selected for the study. Digital intraoral periapical radiograph of defects in all patients were taken using RVG. First auxiliary line was drawn to represent tooth axis (AUX1). Perpendicular to this, a second auxiliary line (AUX2) was drawn that ran through most coronal margin of defect (M3). The depth of defect was measured as the distance between the base of bony defect and AUX2. The width of defect was the distance from coronal margin of bony defect to the root surface perpendicular to AUX1. Results In a total of 67 defects, the radiographic defect depth, defect width and defect angle for maxillary arch was 3.19 ± 1.19 mm , 2.82 ± 0.63 mm and 37.34 ± 9.47 ° respectively while these values for mandibular sites were 3.69 ± 0.92 mm, 2.87 ± 0.76 mm and 35.62 ± 7.08 ° respectively. Multilevel regression analysis revealed narrow defect angles to be related to deep infrabony defects, whereas the width of the interdental space to wide defects. Summary and Conclusion Defect dimensions are determined by the radius of action of microbial biofilm and the baseline defect angle of an infrabony defect would be a function of defect depth. Key Words: Periodontitis, periodontal therapy, vertical defects, radiography