A primary goal of periodontal therapy is the creation of root surfaces that are free of plaque and calculus. It is not yet to be determined whether it is desirable to have a smooth root surface after treatment. It is also not clear what degree of roughness result from different instruments. In the present study various instruments for root surface debridement were evaluated. 20 extracted teeth were utilized, and the teeth were treated with one of the following instrument: Gracey curette, Perio Clean, and piezo ultrasonic device(Setlec, P Max) with general scaler tip, curette-like tip, and diamond tip.

3 dimensional planimetric device(Accura) was used to evaluate the average surface roughness. It was demonstrated hand and power-driven instruments did not have a significant difference in roughness of the root surface following instrumentation. And ultrasonic scaler tip tended to make a most smooth surface than other instruments. The possible reasons of the result were discussed.