Abstract Background: Dental implants have become a significant mode of tooth replacement and have revolutionized oral rehabilitation in partially and fully edentulous patients. Immediate implants have gained popularity as the replacement of teeth with implants at time of extraction considerably saves time and need for further augmentation procedures. There are various techniques for immediate implant placement in anterior aesthetic zone including vestibular socket therapy (VST). There was little information about the use of soft tissue grafts in combination with VST in immediate implants. Objectives: The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the VST technique using connective tissue graft (CTG) versus xenogenic lamina membrane in immediate implants of anterior aesthetic zone. Patients and methods: Twenty surgical sites with remaining roots or nonrestorable teeth in the maxillary anterior region from canine to canine with type II sockets confirmed with cone beam computed tomography were selected in the selected patients who fulfilled the inclusion criteria. After 1 month following phase I therapy sites were randomly classified to be treated with either alloderm + VST in group I or CTG + VST in group II. The following clinical parameters coronal mucosal thickness, apical mucosal thickness (AMT) and mucosal level (ML) were recorded at baseline, 6, and 12 months after surgery by cone beam computed tomography and intraoral scanning. Results: Both treatment modalities resulted in clinical improvement in ML and thickness as well as radiographic evidence of bone regeneration so these materials could be used successfully in the treatment of type II extraction sockets in maxillary anterior regions; however, CTG showed significant improvement in terms of ML and facial bone height. Conclusion: Both groups showed statistically significant improvement in all clinical parameters (coronal mucosal thickness, AMT, ML) at 6 and 12 months postsurgical compared to baseline except AMT for group I, there was no statistically significant difference at 6 and 12 months postsurgical compared to baseline. Intergroup comparison for ML showed statistically significant difference between the two groups in favor of group II at 12 months postsurgical.
Ellithy et al. (Thu,) studied this question.