Chitosan‐based dressing for management of palatal donor site: A randomized clinical trial

Aims This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of a chitosan‐based dressing (CD) in achieving early wound healing and hemostasis at palatal donor sites in patients undergoing free gingival graft (FGG) surgery. Methods Thirty‐two patients requiring FGG were treated in this randomized controlled clinical trial. Complete epithelialization (CE) and color match (CM) at donor sites were assessed by a blinded examiner on postoperative days 7, 14, 21, and 28. Donor sites were compressed for 2 min with wet gauze (WG) alone in control group (CG) or WG + CD in test group (TG) immediately after graft harvesting, and immediate bleeding (IB) was recorded (yes/no). Delayed bleeding (DB) (for 1 week), and number of analgesic tablets consumed, and VAS scores for pain (for 2 weeks) were recorded by patient every day. Results Twenty‐eight patients (14 in each group) were included in final analysis. The prevalence of CE (at weeks 2 and 3) and VAS scores for CM scores were higher in TG but the intergroup differences were statistically significant only for CM (at week 4). Number of patients exhibiting IB and DB was significantly fewer in the TG ( p < .05). Although average pain scores and analgesic consumption were higher in TG up to 5 days, differences between two groups were not statistically significant at any time point. Conclusion Our data suggests that the application of CD increased re‐epithelialization and accelerated wound healing process, although it did not reach statistical significance. Moreover, CD was found to significantly reduce bleeding complications, but it did not decrease the pain levels.