Host modulatory therapy is an emerging treatment concept in the management of periodontitis that aims to reduce tissue destruction and stabilise or even regenerate the periodontium by modifying the host response. Historically treatment of periodontitis has been focused on reducing the bacterial challenge. However the outcomes of the conventional treatment procedures like scaling and root planning (SRP) are not always stable or predictable. Periodontal disease is seen as a balance between (1) a persisting bacterial challenge and the proinflammatory destructive events in the tissue and (2) resolution of inflammation and downregulation of destructive processes. The goal is to maximize treatment response by reducing inflammation and inhibiting destructive processes in the tissues which will result in enhanced periodontal stability after conventional periodontal treatments like SRP.
Host modulatory therapy is a means of treating the host's side of the host-bacteria interaction. [1]