Various procedures to treat intrabony defects by preserving the interdental papilla include conventional, simplified, and modified papilla preservation techniques. The drawback of these techniques is the post-surgical gingival recession.

In order to overcome this drawback, the "entire papilla preservation" technique has been proposed, by preserving the whole integrity of the defect associated papilla providing a tunnel-like undermining incision. Recently a novel surgical procedure, termed nonincised papillae surgical approach (NIPSA), was designed to maintain the integrity of the interdental soft tissues covering intrabony defects. This would prevent biomaterial exposure associated with loss of papillary height, increase the amount of space for hard and soft tissue regeneration, and minimize gingival recession.