Five year evaluation of the excisional new attachment procedure.

Patients treated with the Excisional New Attachment Procedure were evaluated 5 years or more following the procedure. They had received maintenance therapy about four times a year. Clinical measurements of free gingival margin height, pocket depth, and width of keratinized gingiva were made from the cemento-enamel junction in 56 surgical sites and compared to the same parameters recorded presurgically and at 1 and 3 years postsurgically. Probeable depths increased slightly and the amount of previously gained new attachment decreased slightly at each postoperative evaluation period. Only isolated sites were the same as or worse than pretreatment levels. An overall mean net gain in clinical attachment of 1.5 mm was found at 5 years after treatment, and probeable depths approached 3.0 mm at this time. Both of these 5 year findings were statistically and clinically significant improvements over preoperative measurements.