[Treatment of gingival recession with a coronally repositioned flap]

The treatment of an exposed root surface may be indicated for an aesthetic improvement of a gingival recession. The surgical technic depends on the type of the recession, the quality and the quantity of the keratinized gingiva apically or laterally from the recession. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the minimal quantity of keratinized gingiva necessary to obtain a root coverage. 10 recessions on maxillary cuspids were treated with coronally repositioned flap. Less than 3 mm of keratinized gingiva was present apically to the exposed root surface. All patients received oral hygiene instructions, plaque control and scaling and root planing. Gingival recession, width of keratinized gingiva and loss of attachment were measured at the time of surgery and three months postoperatively. The mean recession was 5.20 mm (+/- SE = 0.36) prior to treatment and the keratinized gingiva was 1.70 mm (+/- 0.16) high at T0. The mean gain of root coverage was 3.43 mm (+/- 0.29) at three months post-operatively. At T0 and 3 months post-operatively, the measures of recessions showed a statistically difference confirming the validity of the technic. The absence of correlation between initial height of keratinized gingiva and the coverage result (r = 0.05) indicates that initial width of keratinized gingiva does not affect the coverage results.