Root coverage with connective tissue grafts: an evaluation of short- and long-term results.

BACKGROUND Subepithelial connective tissue grafts have been shown to be effective in obtaining root coverage. However, little is known about the long-term results. The goal of this study was to evaluate and compare the short-term (13.0 weeks) and long-term (27.5 months) root coverage results obtained with subepithelial connective tissue grafts. METHODS One-hundred patients with 146 Miller Class I or Class II recession defects were treated with subepithelial connective tissue grafts to obtain root coverage. The changes in the clinical measurements were compared between the preoperative and short-term results, between preoperative and long-term results, and between short-term and long-term results. RESULTS The mean root coverage at 13.0 weeks was 97.1% and 98.4% at 27.5 months. This difference was statistically significant. There was a statistically significant decrease in recession and probing depth, reduction in attachment loss, and increase in quantity of keratinized tissue between the preoperative and short-term results and between the preoperative and long-term results. There was a statistically significant decrease in recession, increase in the quantity of keratinized tissue, increase in probing depth, and increase in attachment loss between short-term and long-term results. CONCLUSIONS The results of this study demonstrate that the subepithelial connective tissue graft is an effective method to cover exposed roots. The mean root coverage tended to improve with time.