Autograft vs mucograft – maturation index for surface healing of the graft site

Introduction: Gingival recession is defined as the apical dislocation of the marginal gingiva towards the enamel-cement border, a condition that is conditioned primarily by morphology and structure, poor oral hygiene(rough brushing of the teeth) and possible functional overload (traumatic occlusion).
Objective: The aim was to make a cytological verification and comparison in the intervened segment and to determine a graduation index which is an indicator of the surface healing of the grafted site.
Materials and method: The prospective clinical study included 12 patients transplanted with mucograft. With the cytological analysis, the maturation index of the cells was determined by taking a brush swab, and the taken material was applied to glass slides that were stained according to the method of Papanikolaou and Gimza, which determined the maturation index, and implies a percentage ratio of basal, parabasal, intermediate and superficial squamous cells, that show us the healed surface of the injured gingiva in relation to the surrounding tissue in both groups of 30 patients who were treated with the same surgical technique but a different membrane.
Results: With multiple linear regression, it was determined that gender and age as parameters together affect the variability of all three types of cells from the graduation index: parabasal, intermediate and superficial, but none of them is a significant predictor of the variability of the finding on day 30 from the intervention. The results showed that the surface healing of the epithelium was faster in the group of patients treated with Mucograft.
Conclusion: Cytological analysis showed a faster maturation index, a more robust surface healing process in the sample treated with Mucograft, but no significance was registered.
Keywords: Gingival recession, gingival graft, cytological analysis, graduation index.