Root coverage stability of the subepithelial connective tissue graft and guided tissue regeneration: a 30-month follow-up clinical trial.

Objectives: The aim of this study was to compare the long-term clinical effects produced by subepithelial connective tissue graft (SCTG) and guided tissue regeneration combined with demineralized freeze-dried bone allograft (GTR-DFDBA) in the treatment of gingival recessions in a 30-month follow-up clinical trial.

Methods: Twenty-four defects were treated in 12 patients who presented canine or pre-molar Miller class I and/or II bilateral gingival recessions. GTR-DFDBA and SCTG treatments were performed in a randomized selection in a split-mouth design. The clinical measurements included root coverage (RC), gingival recession (GR), probing depth (PD), clinical attachment level (CAL) and keratinized tissue width (KTW). These clinical parameters were evaluated at baseline and after 6, 18 and 30months post-surgery.

Results: The changes in RC, GR, PD and CAL did not show significant differences between groups (p>0.05). Both procedures promoted similar RC (GTR-DFDBA: 87% and SCTG: 95.5%) and similar reduction in GR (GTR-DFDBA: 3.25mm and SCTG: 3.9mm), PD (GTR-DFDBA: 1.6mm and SCTG: 1.2mm) and CAL (GTR-DFDBA: 4.9mm and SCTG: 5.0mm). The increase in KTW was significantly higher (p=0.02) in the SCTG group (3.5mm) than in the GTR-DFDBA group (2.4mm).

Conclusions: Both techniques for treatment of gingival recession (SCTG and GTR-DFDBA) lead to favourable and long-term stable results, but SCTG promoted a more favourable increase in keratinized tissue.