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Sculean A, Donos N et al. J Clin Periodontol 2004; 31: 545–549

In this study, 56 patients with single intrabony defects were randomly assigned to OFD, EMD, surgery with a guided tissue regeneration membrane (GTR), and combined EMD and GTR (COM). In these groups, 5 year follow-up was completed respectively for 10, 11, 11 and 10 patients. Respective mean baseline clinical attachment levels (CAL) were 9.7, 9.9, 9.9 and 9.8 mm, and probing depths (PD), 8.2, 8.2, 8.3 and 8.4 mm. Measurements were made blind with a first generation periodontal probe. One smoker was present in each group except COM, which had 2.

At 1 year, respective improvements in CAL were 1.6, 3.4, 3.2 and 3.0 mm, and in PD, 3.3, 4.6, 4.4, and 4.4 mm. Whilst these were all significant changes, only the differences between OFD and EMD reached statistical significance (P < 0.05). At 5 years, respective changes in CAL from baseline were 1.3, 2.9, 2.7 and 2.6 mm, and in PD, 2.7, 4.3, 3.9, and 4.0 mm. No significant differences between groups were present. The authors interpret their 5 year results as similar for all treatment methods.