Part 2 book “Diagnosis and treatment of furcation ‐ Involved teeth” has contents: Furcation therapy: resective approach and restorative options, furcation tunnelling, innovative and adjunctive furcation therapy, deep gaps between the roots of the molars - a patient’s point of view, and other contents. | 137 Chapter 7 Regenerative Therapy of Furcations in Human Clinical Studies: What has been Achieved So Far? Søren Jepsen and Karin Jepsen Department of Periodontology, Operative and Preventive Dentistry, University of Bonn, Germany Introduction Different strategies are available to address the problem of furcation involvement (FI). One option is the elimination of the furcation defect. This can be achieved by removal of the involved root(s) using resective approaches (see Chapter 8). Alternatively, periodontal tissues that have been destroyed by periodontitis can be regenerated, thereby decreasing the lesion. Regenerative periodontal therapy of furcation defects has proven successful in many experimental pre‐clinical studies (see Chapter 6). This chapter reviews the evidence for the effectiveness of regenerative therapy for the treatment of furcation defects in different clinical scenarios, in order to address the question: ‘What has been achieved so far?’ Outcome Measures for Regenerative Therapy in Furcation Defects A variety of outcome measures can be considered to assess the effectiveness of regenerative furcation therapies. Human Histology Evidence for periodontal regeneration requires the histological demonstration of restored tooth‐supporting tissues, including cementum, periodontal ligament, and alveolar bone, over a previously diseased root surface. Even though such outcomes have been demonstrated in well‐controlled experimental animal studies for a variety of treatment modalities (see Chapter 6), information derived from human histology is scarce. Four histological studies investigated human degree II furcation defects (Harris 2002; Stoller et al. 2001; Camelo et al. 2003; Nevins et al. 2003), one studied degree III defects (Mellonig et al. 2009), while one presented data from degree II and III furcation defects (Gottlow et al. 1986). Degree II Furcation Defects Regarding degree II defects, all five studies reported .
