Soft tissue volume gain around dental implants using autogenous subepithelial connective tissue grafts harvested from the lateral palate or tuberosity area. A randomized controlled clinical study

AIM: To compare the soft tissue volume gain (VG) around single tooth implants with subepithelial connective tissue graft (SCTG) from either the lateral palate (LP) or from the tuberosity area (TA). METHODS: Thirty-two patients with 36 implants with buccal volume deficiencies were randomly assigned to receive SCTG from LP (control group/CG) or TA (test group/TG). Clinical parameters were recorded. VG was evaluated by stereolithography (STL) image superimposition of two intraoral scans (baseline/BL and 3 months after surgery/FU-3). Descriptive analysis was performed for both groups, and for comparisons, Mann-Whitney U test was used. RESULTS: In terms of VG values, no statistically significant differences were observed except for values at 6 and 7 mm apically to the healing abutment which favoured the TG. Mean values were 0.69 ± 0.23 mm for CG while TG obtained 0.79 ± 0.10 mm (p = .64). Regarding Keratinized tissue (KT) width statistical significant differences were found favouring TG, which obtained a gain of 0.83 ± 0.61 mm compared with 0.22 ± 0.48 mm for CG (p = .009). Pink esthetic scores resulted in mean values of 10.07 ± 2.19 for the CG, while TG obtained 9.15 ± 2.34. CONCLUSIONS: Both procedures were effective in increasing soft tissue volume with no statistically significant differences. A longer follow-up is needed to confirm or refute these results.