Healing after treatment of periodontal intraosseous defects

84 periodontal intraosseous defects treated with mucoperiosteal replaced flap surgery and citric acid root conditioning were used to study the relationships between various defect characteristics and the healing response as expressed by change of probing attachment level, change of probing bone level and residual probing depth. More gains in probing attachment and probing bone levels were observed in deep defects than in shallower lesions. Other defect characteristics showed weak or no correlations to defect fill. The findings of this study seem to indicate that the outcome of treatment of intraosseous defects may be difficult to predict based upon evaluation of defect characteristics.