Evaluation of the efficacy of modified free gingival graft in improving the width and thickness of soft tissue before dental implantation at posterior area

Abstract

Background and Aim of study: The lack of keratinized tissue around the implants exposes them to the risk of developing peri-implant mucositis and peri-implantitis., recent systematic reviews concluded that there is an association between insufficient peri-implant keratinized tissue with more plaque accumulation, signs of inflammation, soft tissue regression, and attachment loss. Several methods and materials have been proposed to graft and increase the keratinized gingival around the teeth and implants, including the free gingival graft and the connective tissue graft.

Aim of study: : To compare and observe the changes that occur on the mucosa before dental implantation during the application of two different soft tissue graft techniques, which are modified free gingival graft and the subepithelial connective tissue graft that are taken from the palatal dome. From the width and thickness of the keratinized mucosa

Materials and methods In this study, 28 gingival prosthetic surgeries were performed on 14 patients in the posterior region of the lower jaw by the split mouth. Patients were selected from those who had edentulous area in the posterior region of the lower jaw, which required compensation for dental implants, where one of the sides was treated (randomly) by using the modified free gingival graft and the other sides treated with a connective graft.

Clinical parameters were taken and included: Gingival thickness (G.Th), Width of keratinized gingiva (WKG) during different time periods

Results The results showed there was no statistically significant difference in the pain value between the two study groups in each of the studied time periods, while the connective graft was superior to the modified free gingival graft

Conclusion: Within this study limits, the modified free gingival graft can be consider as a good alternative for connective tissue graft, as it gives results similar to terms of increasing the thickness of the keratinized mucosa and better results in the width of tissue