Abstract
The aim of our study was to establish the level of calculus and dental tissue loss, together with the quality of the dental root surface after the instrumentation performed by three techniques applied in the causal treatment of the periodontal disease – the Gracey curettes, the ultrasonic scaler and the reciprocating systems with Periotor inserts. The in vitro study was conducted on 33 extracted teeth by periodontal pathological reasons which were randomly distributed in three sample groups: group 1 (instrumentation with Gracey curettes), group 2 (ultrasonic piezoelectric scaling) and group 3 (instrumentation with reciprocating system). The quantitative evaluation of hard tissue loss after instrumentation was done by weighing each tooth before and after performing the procedure. For the qualitative analysis of the instrumented root surfaces we applied the Roughness Loss of Tooth Substance Index (RLTSI). The greatest weight loss in the samples was registered by Group 1 (Gracey curettes), but there were no statistically significant differences between the mean values of the weights between the study groups. The mean values of the RLTSI score were significantly different between groups 1 and 3, with better scores for the reciprocating system. Therefore, the results of our in vitro study revealed the fact that the scaling in deep pockets with the Periotor inserts was the least aggressive method, followed by the ultrasonic scaler and the Gracey curettes.
Keywords: tissue loss; root planing; Gracey curette; ultrasonic scaler; reciprocating system