Periodontal Dressing After Flap Surgery -A Retrospective Study

Aim: The use of periodontal dressing (pack) post periodontal surgery has always been a dilemma and many authors have conducted studies to determine its need. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of periodontal dressing on post-operative pain, swelling and healing after flap surgery. This would enable us to understand the significance of periodontal dressing and thereby decide if we should advocate its use in our clinical practices. Materials and Methods: Digital case records of 734 patients who underwent flap surgery in the hospital from June 2019 to March 2020 were reviewed. All the pre and post op details including site of flap surgery and post operative healing were evaluated. Cases with incomplete data were excluded and narrowed down to 348 patients. The post-operative clinical photographs of 348 patients were evaluated and graded based on the Healing index of Landry, Turnbull and Howley. Descriptive statistics and tests of association were done by Chi square tests and unpaired t-test using IBM SPSS Software Version 20.0. P value < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: Periodontal dressing was preferred 23% of the times amongst the dentists. A significant association indicating that non usage of Periodontal dressing provided better healing than usage of pack was revealed. (p = 0.037) Quadrant 1 was found to be the most commonly used site in flap surgeries. Conclusion: Postoperativehealing is significantly better for flap surgeries done without the usage of periodontal dressing