Cytological assessment of healing palatal donor site wounds and grafted gingival wounds after application of ozonated oil: an eighteen-month randomized controlled clinical trial.

OBJECTIVE The present study was undertaken to assess the therapeutic effects of topical ozonated oil on early healing of free gingival graft surgical sites. STUDY DESIGN Twenty subjects were entered into this triple-blinded, randomized, placebo-controlled clinical trial, designed to evaluate the efficacy of ozonated oil on free gingival graft surgical wounds. Subjects were assigned to either the ozone group, in which ozonated oil was applied to the surgical wound, or the control group, in which non-ozonated oil was used as a control. Patients were postoperatively evaluated by cytological analysis. Cytological analysis consisted of the keratinisation and superficial cell indices measured at baseline, after 24 h, on the 3rd, 7th, 14th and 21st day and 2, 3, 8 and 18 months postoperatively. RESULTS Cytological results showed that there was a significant (p < 0.001) improvement in epithelial healing by the 7th, 14th and 21st day and 2, 3 and 8 months postoperatively in the ozone group compared to the control group. CONCLUSION The present study showed significant improvement in epithelial healing and gingival health after topical application of ozone-treated plant oil to gingival surgical sites.