Assessment of Compressing Suture Technique in Healing of Free Gingival Graft: A Retrospective Study

Abstract

Introduction: Compression sutures are used to achieve high fixation, especially when connecting soft tissues with bony tissues. The suture technique applies pressure and tensile strength that contributes to stabilizing the soft tissues and reducing the bleeding of the palatine vascular bundle. Compression sutures achieve a high fixation of soft tissues and periodontal grafts, which is an important and basic requirement in achieving good healing and success for gingival grafts and periodontal surgeries.

Aim of the research: The research aims to evaluate the role of compression suture in the success rates of periodontal grafts in comparison with traditional suture through several clinical cases.

Methods and materials: The paper reviews a series of clinical cases between two groups of patients, the traditional suture group and the compression suture group. The research sample included 22 patients who were distributed equally to the two groups, and the research sample included 10 male patients and 12 female patients. Initial treatment, recipient site preparation, gingival graft extraction, suture application (conventional and compression), and healing observation were performed over several time periods.

Results: The compression suture group significantly outperformed the

traditional suture group in terms of graft area after 1 month and after 6 months (0.034, 0.024), respectively. The compression suture outperformed the conventional in terms of graft shrinkage, as shrinkage was significantly less in the compression suture. While there was no significant difference in terms of gingival recession, as both suture groups achieved similar results in correcting gingival recession, but the compression suture group had a higher rate of graft success compared to the traditional suture group.

Conclusion: Within the limits of this research, it was observed through clinical cases that the success rates of gingival grafts when applying compression suture are higher than grafts associated with traditional suturing, as the pressure sutures contributed to achieving higher stability of grafts, reducing shrinkage of the grafts, and achieving a larger area of Cover.