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Updated: Jul 5, 2025
Tissue Characterization after a New Disaggregation Method for Skin Micro-Grafts Generation
Published on: March 4, 2016
Augmentation of keratinized tissue using autogenous soft-tissue grafts and collagen-based soft-tissue substitutes at
Hyun-Chang Lim1,2, Franz J Strauss1,3, Seung-Il Shin2
1Clinic of Reconstructive Dentistry, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Aim:
To histomorphometrically assess three treatment modalities for gaining keratinized tissue (KT) at teeth and at dental implants.
Materials And Methods:
In five dogs, the distal roots of the mandibular second, third and fourth premolars were extracted. Dental implants were placed at the distal root areas 2 months later. After another 2 months, KT augmentation was performed at both distal (implants) and at mesial root (teeth) areas in the presence (wKT groups) or absence (w/oKT groups) of a KT band at the mucosal/gingival level. Three treatment modalities were applied randomly: apically positioned flap only (APF), free gingival grafts (FGGs) and xenogeneic collagen matrices (XCMs). A combination of the above produced six groups. Two months later, tissue sections were harvested and analysed histomorphometrically.
Results:
The median KT height and length were greatest at implants with FGG in both wKT (3.7 and 5.1 mm, respectively) and w/oKT groups (3.7 and 4.6 mm), and at teeth with FGG in wKT groups (3.7 and 6.1 mm) and with APF in the w/oKT groups (3.9 and 4.4 mm). The XCM and APF produced more favourable results at teeth than at implants.
Conclusions:
FGG was advantageous in gaining KT, especially at implants.
