Dental implants have paved the way for a shift in thought towards preservation of the remaining natural teeth.Over the past 30 years, implants have overshadowed the era of removable and fixed prosthesis. Periodontist play a pivotal role in implant dentistry around which all the branches of dentistry revolve. Periodontal bone loss, tooth extraction, and long term use of removable appliances typically result in advanced alveolar bone loss that prevents the placement of implants in an optimal prosthetic position. Fortunately, continuous innovations in surgical techniques and advances in the biologic understanding of bone regenerative techniques have lead to advanced implant procedures and an increased predictability to reconstruct alveolar ridge defects. Periodontists have a primary role in treatment planning and maintenance therapy, and with the help of prosthodontists they routinely integrate endosseous implants into periodontal therapy. This book provides valuable information on role of periodontist in providing optimal care to implant patients during treatment planning, surgical phase and most importantly in maintenance phase.

Local drug delivery has gained wide acceptance as an adjunct to mechanical debridement for the treatment of chronic periodontitis. A variety of delivery vehicles have been utilized for intrapocket administration of antimicrobial agents with variable success. Varnishes, which accomplish a reservoir of drug on the tooth surface are one of the recently developed vehicles used to deliver antimicrobial agent such as chlorhexidine, being utilized for the treatment of periodontitis. They allow application of a sufficient dose of antimicrobial agent over a longer period of time. So, varnishes seem to be an appealing vehicle for delivery of chlorhexidine (a gold standard anti-plaque agent) in periodontal milieu. From the results of present investigation, it can be concluded, within limitations of the study, that multiple applications of 1% chlorhexidine varnish have an added benefit over single application in treatment of chronic periodontitis.

The traditional diagnostic methods as well as indices based on their results cannot detect the presence of active periodontal destruction nor do they have predictive value. These are only reliable to know the retrospective diagnosis of attachment loss. The recent research in periodontal diagnosis is aimed at identification of disease process that if allowed to proceed unaltered, will result in future breakdown. Recent immunocytochemically based approach has offered a new avenue in periodontal diagnostic research. The availability of complementary information on pathologically altered tissues has provided new diagnostic products to evaluate patient periodontal status as chair side diagnostic tools. This book aims at providing ample source of information and throwing stress on various advancements in Periodontal Diagnosis.

Establishing the identity of a person may seem like an easy task; the person, or their friends or family, can simply be asked their name. In medicolegal cases, however, there are often reasons why people are either unable to give accurate answers or purposefully give inaccurate ones. In cases of death, a body may also be too disfigured due to trauma to allow for easy identification. Though sometimes difficult, identification remains a necessary task. Identification of an individual can be confirmed by several different methods. However when the number of victims increases, the forensic experts have to depend on more specific extensive information and at this point the dental tissues become an encyclopedia of information. Through this book, author aims to draw the attention that these methods cannot always be used, sometimes simple techniques can be used successfully in human identification, such as "Palatal rugoscopy." Palatoscopy is a name given to the study of palatal rugae in order to establish a person's identity as no two palates are alike and palatal rugae appear to possess the features of ideal identification parameters - uniqueness, individuality and stability.

Growth factors are a class of natural biologic mediators which regulate key cellular events in tissue repair i.e. cell proliferation, chemotaxis (directed migration), differentiation and matrix synthesis via binding to specific cell surface receptors. The expression of various growth and differentiation factors following bone and soft tissue injury like what happens in a periodontal disease may regulate the repair and regeneration process. The capacity of these mitogenic growth factors to initiate a programmed cellular cascade that results in the induction of bone in a functionally conserved process utilized in embryonic development recapitulated in post fetal osteogenesis and can be re-exploited for the therapeutic initiation of periodontal tissue regeneration.

Oral lichen planus is most commonly asymptomatic and gingival lesions of lichen planus such as atrophic, erosive and desquamative lesions, were often found to co-exist with chronic marginal gingivitis. Whether these lesions are benign or malignant, early diagnosis and planned treatment is mandatory to check the menace at the earliest. The use of bio-resorbable membranes had been proposed to regenerate periodontal structures like alveolar bone, periodontal ligament and epithelium. However it has rarely been tried in the management of lichen planus of gingivae. Surgical managememnt of such cases was performed to evaluate the use of bio-resorbable membranes in the management of erosive lichen planus of gingivae

Dental hypersensitivity probably affects most individuals and at times, pain may be so severe that patient believes that his/her dentition is seriously and perhaps irreversibly affected. Iontophoresis i.e. use of desensitizing agents along with electric current has been utilized as a lasting and predictable treatment of dental hypersensitivity. In the recent past, researchers have been trying to manage this problem by surgical means also by re-covering the exposed tooth root surfaces. Present investigation attempted to find out the effects of combining both these treatment modalities to alleviate the menace of hypersensitivity, along with enhancing the patient's esthetics.

Periodontics is a rapidly changing branch of dentistry with new scientific revelations unveiling many mysteries with each passing day. The elucidation of role of cytokines in maintaining tissue homeostasis as well in mediating periodontal tissue destruction has opened doors to insight of molecular mechanisms regulating periodontium.This book provides latest information on almost all aspects of cytokines as applied to clinical periodontics. An understanding of role of cytokines in periodontal health, disease and wound healing is likely to yield tangible benefits in periodontal diagnosis and therapy to an extent previously thought to be impossible.