A CLINICAL STATISTICAL COMPARISON BETWEEN THE SUBPEDICLE CONNECTIVE-TISSUE GRAFT METHOD AND THE GUIDED TISSUE REGENERATION TECHNIQUE IN ROOT COVERAGE/

Subepithelial connective tissue grafts and guided tissue regeneration have been shown to be effective means to obtain root coverage. The pur pose of this study is to compare statistically the results obtained wi th these techniques 1 year after the surgical procedures were performe d. Thirty-six gingival recessions belonging to Class I and Class II of the Miller classification were treated: 18 cases with subepithelial c onnective tissue grafts (SCTG) and 18 cases with guided tissue regener ation (GTR). Each patient was randomly assigned to a group. At baselin e, the group treated with subepithelial connective tissue grafts prese nted a mean recession of 4.88 mm, whereas the group treated with guide d tissue regeneration presented a mean recession of 5.88 mm (P = .082) . After 1 year, the mean root coverage was 77.08% in the SCTG group an d 80.88% in the GTR group. The difference was not statistically signif icant (P > .05). The mean root coverage was 3.83 mm for the SCTG group and 4.61 mm for the GTR group. The mean gain in probing attachment le vel was 3.05 mm for the SCTG group and 5.55 mm for the GTR group. The difference was statistically (P = .01). In conclusion, the mean root c overage obtained was similar for the two groups, whereas the clinical attachment gain was greater in the GTR group. Therefore, it appears th at the GTR technique is preferable when severe mucogingival defects ar e present and gain of clinical attachment level is mandatory.