Background and aims. Complete and predictable regeneration of tissue lost as a result of infection or trauma is the ultimate goal of periodontal therapy. Various graft materials have been successfully used in the treatment of intrabony defects. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of a decalcified freeze-dried bone allograft (Cerabone) with the autogenous bone graft as a gold standard in the treatment of human two- or three-wall intrabony periodontal defects.

Materials and methods. This split-mouth study was done on 10 pairs of matched two- or three-wall intrabony periodontal defects with 5 mm or more probing depth and 3 mm or more depth of intrabony component following phase I therapy. In the control sites autogenous bone graft and in the test sites decalcified freeze-dried bone allograft were used.

Results. At baseline, no significant differences were found in terms of oral hygiene and defect characteristics. At six months, analysis showed a significant improvement in soft and hard tissue parameters for both treatment groups as compared to preoperative measurements. There were no statistical differences in clinically-measured parameters between treatment groups after 6 months except for crestal resorption that increased significantly in control group (P = 0.25). Defect resolution and bone fill in the test and control groups were 2.5 ± 0.46 mm versus 2.7 ± 0.73 mm and 2 ± 0.62 mm versus 2.20 ± 0.52 mm, respectively.

Conclusion. The results of this study demonstrated that both graft materials improved clinical parameters. The comparison of the two treatment groups did not show any significant differences in clinical parameters after six months. However, because of the limited amount of intra-oral donor bone, it is preferable to use decalcified freeze-dried bone allograft.