Osseous Repair Without Attachment: A Case Report of Experimental Periodontitis

Osseous repair, or 'bone fill', of infrabony pockets has been reported by a number of authors as a sequel to various periodontal treatment procedures (Prichard 1957, Schallhorn 1967, Robinson 1969, Rosenberg 1971, Klingsberg 1974). All of these were clinical studies on human patients and the results were assessed by examination of the area of the original pocket by 're-entry' procedures at various intervals postoperatively. In no case was there any detailed investigation of the nature of the tissues or of any 'attachment' between the root surface and the new bone. Spontaneous repair of an osseous defect after removal of an orthodontic elastic, which had slipped down around the root of a tooth, was recently reported by Goldman (1974). He questioned the role of junctional epithelium in preventing osseous fill and new attachment and postulated that: 'It may be possible for the epithelial attachment to shift coronally under the influence of regeneration of the alveolar process and subjacent connective tissue.' The purpose of the present paper is to report a case in which there was osseous repair of an experimentally induced periodontal pocket without new attachment of connective tissue fibers to the root surface.