Treatment of Naturally Occurring Periodontitis in Dogs With a New Bio-Absorbable Regenerative Matrix

Abstract

Although periodontal disease is one of the most common (oral) diseases in dogs, an effective treatment approach to periodontitis lacks. The aim of this study was to evaluate the safety and efficacy of a regenerative, bio-absorbable implant biomaterial made of medical-grade porcine gelatin, which is cross-linked by transglutaminase into a porous scaffold for the treatment of periodontitis in dogs in a clinical setting. Nine client-owned dogs were included in this multicenter, prospective interventional clinical study. A split-mouth design was used to treat any teeth with periodontitis; teeth on one side of the mouth were treated with open periodontal therapy alone (control teeth) and teeth on the other side were treated with open periodontal therapy and the tested implant (teeth treated with the implant). A recheck under general anesthesia was performed 3 months after the initial treatment and included periodontal probing, dental radiographs, and/or cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) of the teeth included in the study. This revealed a reduction of the probing depth (PD) at all teeth, but in teeth treated with the implant, a statistically significant improvement (average 2.0 mm) over control teeth (average 1.0 mm) was diagnosed. Similarly, alveolar bone height was increased at most of the teeth, but in teeth treated with the implant, a statistically significant improvement (average 1.26 mm palatally and 1.51 mm buccally) over control teeth (average 0.58 mm palatally and 0.7 mm buccally) was observed for the buccal site. Open periodontal therapy alone improves clinical parameters and alveolar bone height in dogs with periodontitis, which is further significantly improved by the addition of the implant used.

Clinical success of guided tissue regeneration for treating vertical bone and furcation defects in dogs

“…Again, while direct comparisons are limited due to pointed differences in study design, these results are less than our estimated improvement of a pre-treatment CAL of 8 mm treated with GTR with both bone and polymer membranes. Additionally, furcation involvement remained largely static in all cases for both groups in the Gawor et al ( 26 ) study, which included F1, F2, and F3 lesions. These results are less than our findings of 64.3% improvement or resolution for F1 and F2 lesions and similar to our findings of 11.1% improvement for F3 lesions treated with GTR.…”

“…In another prospective study utilizing a split-mouth model, nine dogs received RP/O alone and RP/O with placement of an implant of medical grade porcine gelatin cross-linked by transglutaminase into a porous scaffold to treat 22 teeth with periodontal disease stage 2 to early stage 4 with initial probing depths 3–8 mm ( 26 ). Three months following treatment, teeth treated with RP/O alone had an average (range) improvement in probing depth of 1.0 mm (0–4 mm) ( Table 4 ).…”