Periodontics 2027: What’s New, What’s Still Gold, What Works, and What Matters

Evidence-Based Strategies for Saving Teeth and Maintaining Implants

Periodontal and peri-implant care continues to evolve, with new guidelines, technologies, and treatment approaches appearing at a rapid pace. This course will provide a practical, evidence-based update on the developments that are most relevant to everyday clinical care. The program will focus on four key areas: 1) periodontal diagnosis, risk assessment, and prognosis; 2) nonsurgical therapy and reevaluation; 3) periodontal regeneration; and 4) long-term periodontal and implant maintenance. A central theme of the course will be preserving the natural dentition whenever possible. We will look at how current evidence can help clinicians decide which periodontally compromised teeth can be treated and maintained, when surgical or regenerative therapy may improve prognosis, and when alternative treatment or referral should be considered. The course will also touch on emerging areas such as host modulation and inflammation resolution, newer adjunctive treatments, and advances in digital and biomarker-based diagnostics. These developments will be considered alongside established therapies to help separate promising innovation from approaches that are not yet ready for routine clinical use. Current clinical practice guidelines and consensus recommendations will be integrated throughout the course. Clinical examples will help translate the science into practical decisions, with a focus on what is new, what is still gold, what works, and what truly matters in daily practice.

Learning Objectives

* Apply current periodontal guidelines and contemporary concepts of diagnosis, risk assessment, and prognosis to individualized treatment planning.

* Evaluate the response to nonsurgical periodontal therapy and identify periodontally compromised teeth that may benefit from surgical or regenerative treatment to improve long-term tooth retention.

* Apply evidence-based principles to periodontal regeneration, supportive periodontal care, and peri-implant disease while distinguishing established therapies from promising emerging approaches.