2007 – VOLUME 36 – Issue 2

?Periodontology is a medical discipline which has been largely developed during the last decades. It has been marked by the appearance of new concepts concerning etiopathogenesis, diagnostic means and treatment of periodontal diseases notably :
- the understanding of etiologies and mechanisms of periodontal disease development ;
- the development of the notion of periodontal risk and predisposition to periodontal diseases ;
- an emergence of the concept of periodontal medicine and systemic repercussions of periodontal diseases ;
- the development of new microbiological, diagnostic, immunological and genetic means ;
- the development of a concept of non-surgical treatment as a treatment in itself and its orientation towards adjunctive medicinal treatments ;
n the emergence of new treatments by host response modulation ;
- the establishment of surgical protocols, flaps, mucogingival surgery, then the rationalization of periodontal plastic surgery ;
- and the evolution of the knowledge on healing processes of periodontal tissues and the development of regenerative techniques.
This article attempts to describe the evolution of these concepts and to review the recent acquisitions of researches in periodontology, by demonstrating how they modify our daily practice in prevention, diagnosis and treatment.