Chronic and progressive destruction/damage of the periodontal tissues resulted from periodontitis is the leading cause of tooth loss in adults. Traditional periodontal therapies such as scaling and root planning or flap surgery have demonstrated effective in controlling local inflammation and in suppressing/arresting the disease progression of periodontitis. However, those infection control measures cannot help to regenerate lost periodontal tissues to a statistically or clinically significant degree. Although some successes regarding the reduction of the intrabony defect and maintenance of the periodontal homeostasis have been achieved in periodontal regenerative procedures, comprising but not limited to guided tissue regeneration (GTR) or bone grafting technique, the restorative effectiveness of the architecture and function of the lost or injured tissues is far from our clinical expectation. The use of the concept, technique, and method of tissue engineering for periodontal regeneration is a hotspot and animal studies have shown interesting outcomes in terms of functional regeneration of lost/damaged support tissues in the periodontium, including alveolar bone, periodontal ligament, and cementum. However, numerous issues need to be addressed before those regenerative approaches can be responsibly transformed to novel clinical therapies. Recently, paradigm that induces homing of host stem cells to site of the periodontium and encourage the body's innate capability to repair is a new research field termed endogenous regeneration. Given that endogenous regenerative technique avoids ex-vivo cell culture and transplantation, it should be relatively easier to be used in the treatment of clinical patients. Due to the limited oral microenvironment and harsh periodontal local condition for tissue regeneration, as well as poor understanding of periodontal regenerative biology, there is still a long way ahead to explore new effective, practical, and economical therapies to save and protect natural tooth and for combating highly prevalent periodontal disease.
牙周炎所致的牙周组织慢性进行性破坏是成人牙齿缺失的主要原因。传统牙周治疗虽可控制牙周炎症、延缓或阻止疾病进程，却不能使缺失的牙周组织获得良好的再生。以引导性牙周组织再生、牙周骨移植技术为代表的再生治疗策略，虽可有效减小牙周骨下袋深度，一定程度上恢复患牙牙周稳态，却面临再生能力有限、可预见性差的困境，特别是在恢复牙周组织的生理结构和功能上，远未达到临床所期望的目标。利用组织工程的原理、技术和方法促进牙周组织再生的尝试，在动物实验中已取得令人振奋的结果，但临床转化中却面临巨大的困难和挑战。诱导机体自身干细胞归巢，实现牙周组织内源性再生，可避免细胞培养和移植等复杂程序，有望加速牙周组织再生新技术、新方法临床转化的进程。由于口腔微环境和牙周局部条件的影响，牙周组织再生的生物学基础差，探索切实有效的再生策略，挽救、守护天然牙，在今后很长一段时间里，都将是牙周病学基础和临床研究领域关注的难题，任重而道远。.