Non-surgical periodontal therapy of shallow gingival recession defects: Evaluation of the restorative capacity of marginal gingiva after 12 months

Background: There is a large amount of data on surgical root coverage procedures for the treatment of gingival recessions but no controlled clinical trials on the behavior of marginal gingiva following non-surgical therapy. The aim of our study was to compare in terms of root coverage two different modalities of root surface treatment, root planing and polishing versus polishing alone, over a 12-month period. Methods: The study was conducted in a split-mouth design. Twenty-four non-smoking patients (14 females and 10 males, mean age 25.17 +/- 4.03 years) with high levels of oral hygiene (full-mouth plaque score < 20%) and with two bilateral Class I buccal recessions up to 2 mm deep were selected for the study. In each patient one recession was randomly assigned to the test group and the contra-lateral one to the control group. In the test group the exposed root surface was gently debrided and polished with mini curets and mini rubber cups, while the control group was polished only. The root surface instrumentation was repeated twice a month during the first 2 months and at 2-month intervals over the next 10 months. Clinical measurements were taken at baseline and 12 months post-therapy. Results: At baseline the mean recession depth in the test group was 1.64 +/- 0.37 mm and in the control sites 1.43 +/- 0.42 mm, which decreased at 12 months to 0.78 +/- 0.60 mm and to 1.34 +/- 0.45 mm, respectively. The difference between the two groups was significant (P < 0.0001). No significant differences were observed in keratinized tissue width and probing depth improvements. Conclusions: The removal of microbial toxins from the exposed root surfaces by polishing prevents further progression of gingival recession; the reduction of root convexity by scaling and root planing promotes the coronal shift of the gingival margin.