Study evaluates pros and cons of connective tissue graft versus collagen matrix for recession coverage

The latest issue of the EFP research summary JCP Digest provides insight into rival techniques for recession coverage using the modified coronally advanced tunnel technique (MCAT).

Researchers at the Medical University of Bialystok in Poland compared the use of subepithelial connective-tissue graft (SCTG) and Xenogeneic collagen matrix (CM) in reducing the height of gingival recession and increasing soft-tissue thickness after treatment of Miller class 1 and 2 multiple recessions using MCAT.

While SCGT is often presented as the best option for root coverage and phenotype thickening, it has several disadvantages. These include the need for a donor site and the possibility of limited tissue being harvested as well as the fact that surgery takes longer and there is an increased risk of postsurgical complications.

The CM technique involves new membrane made of tightly packed collagen fibres on a thick porous scaffold, which enables clot formation and ingrowth of adjacent tissue without the post-surgical discomfort from autogenous harvesting.

This single-centre, randomised, split-mouth, assessor-blind trial involved 20 patients. A single surgeon carried out all surgical interventions using the modified coronally advanced tunnel technique with collagen matrix on one side of the mandible (test group) and subepithelial connective-tissue graft on the opposite side (control group).

While both methods achieved beneficial clinical outcomes, the SCGT technique demonstrated a superior clinical outcome after 12 months.

Researchers questioned whether reducing the post-surgical discomfort using xenogeneic grafting might be less of an advantage when compared to the superior clinical outcomes achieved with autogenous grafting.

This issue of JCP Digest is the first of the 2019 series, corresponding to the January edition (Volume 46, Number 1) of the Journal of Clinical Periodontology in which the original research was published.

It was summarised for JCP Digest by students of the postgraduate programme in periodontology at the Hadassah–Hebrew University Medical Center, Jerusalem in Israel.