Hard and soft tissue healing around teeth prepared with the biologically oriented preparation technique and restored with provisional crowns: An in vivo experimental investigation.

Abstract

To evaluate the hard and soft tissues healing around teeth prepared with the biologically oriented preparation technique (BOPT) versus the chamfer technique versus non-prepared teeth. Thirty-two teeth in eight beagle dogs were randomly prepared with the BOPT (test = 16) or chamfer (control = 16) techniques and covered with polymethylmethacrylate crowns as provisional restorations. Sixteen negative controls (non-prepared teeth) were also used for comparison. Histological description and histomorphometrical measurements of the periodontal tissues were collected at 4 and 12 weeks in 7 out of 8 dogs, including the soft tissue height and thickness, and the horizontal and vertical bone dimensions. When compared with negative controls, test and control preparation techniques exhibited a more apical location of the free gingival margin with respect to the cement-enamel junction (∆ = 1.1 mm for both groups at 4 weeks (p < .05), 0.99 mm for the test group (p = .043) and 0.20 mm for control group (p = 1.000) at 12 weeks). There were no significant differences between test and control groups with respect to vertical and horizontal histometric measurements. The BOPT and chamfer tooth preparation protocols induced similar qualitative and quantitative changes in the healing of the supra-crestal soft tissue complex, when compared with non-prepared teeth. Despite the limited amount of power, it appeared that differences between the tested preparation techniques were not statistically significant.