Root coverage with subeptithelial connective tissue grafts

Song, Hyun Jong; Jang, Hyun Seon; Kim, Byung Ock

Abstract

Marginal tissue recession makes problems like esthetics, root caries, hypersensitivity and plaque accumulation. Request for root coverage is higer than ever, especially esthetic problems involved. So techniques for root coverage hav been developed. There are some kinds of surgical techniques using soft tissue for root coverage. For example, free gingival graft, kinds of pedicle flap, subepithelial connective tissue graft(SCTG), and so on. Subepithelial connective tissue graft has many advantage for root coverage, that is less pain on donor site, good blood supply for graft, and more esthetic result. For this reaseon, this case report was performed to evaluate the effect of root coverage using subepithelial connective tissue graft. Three patients has Miller's class I marginal tissue recession and one patients has Miller's class III marginal tissue recession. The following period is 36.5 month on average. The results are as follows: 1. Root coverage of 100% was obtained in 5 of 6 defects, and 80% was obtained in 1 of 6 defects. The mean root coverage was 96.6% in six cases on 4 patients. 2. The mean root coverage was 3.83mm and mean recession depth decreased from 4mm to 0.16mm. 3. The mean width of clinical attached gingiva increased from 1.5mm to 4mm. The mean width of gained attached gingiva after surgery was 2.5mm. 4. The mean follow up period was 36.5 months. The longest follow up period was 50 months and the shortest follow up period was 22 months. 5. The result that obtained by surgery was stable during follow up period. Within the above results, root coverage with SCTG is an effective procedure to cover marginal tissue recession defect with long term stability.