Tissue engineering is a multidisciplinary field with the potential to replace tissues lost as a result of trauma, cancer surgery, or organ dysfunction. Periodontal disease leads to loss of periodontal supporting structures, like cementum, the periodontal ligament and the alveolar bone. Periodontal treatments like scaling, root planing and gingival curettage are effective in repairing disease related defects and halting further progress of disease. In recent years tissue engineering strategies for clinical applications have been mainly developed in different medical fields to replace skin, cartilage, bone, cardiovascular component and pancreas. It has been applied in dentistry mainly in the fields of oral and maxillofacial surgery and periodontics for bone and soft tissue regeneration. In this paper an overview of the basic principles of tissue engineering and its application in periodontics is explored.
