[The surgical verification of the periodontal probe and endoral radiography in assessing the bone substance loss in periodontal disease. A proposal for optimizing the methods].

It is difficult to compare levels of bone loss in periodontal disease measured by periodontal probe and X-ray and to verify them versus surgical techniques. In fact, there are relatively few published reports on the subject. To this purpose the Authors describe their personal experience using plates equipped with guide tracks and center-film boxes with personalized bites. The suitability of the two methods (probe, intraoral X-ray) to determine levels of bone loss similar to those revealed by surgical verification was assessed on the basis of an analysis of the respective bone loss in 44 sites surrounding 19 dental elements. This method, which is accurate but time-consuming, demonstrated an broadly analogous underestimate (approx. 20%) using both preoperative probe and X-ray techniques in comparison to the true level of bone loss measured during surgery.