A comparative study of root coverage obtained with an acellular dermal matrix versus a connective tissue graft: results of 107 recession defects in 50 consecutively treated patients

Obtaining root coverage has become an important part of periodontal therapy. In this study, 2 surgical root coverage procedures were examined. The control group was treated with a coronally positioned pedicle graft combined with a connective tissue graft. The test group was treated with a coronally positioned pedicle graft combined with an acellular dermal matrix. There was no statistically significant difference in the mean root coverage obtained (96.2% control vs 95.8% test). There was a statistically significant reduction in probing depth (1.2 mm control vs 0.7 mm test) and increase in keratinized tissue (2.0 mm control vs 1.2 mm test) in both groups. The connective tissue graft produced a greater mean probing reduction and mean keratinized tissue increase than the acellular dermal matrix. However, this did not appear to be clinically significant. The results of both procedures were esthetically acceptable to the patients and clinically acceptable in all cases. In this study, the acellular dermal matrix and the connective tissue graft resulted in similar amounts of root coverage.