Successful coverage of exposed roots for esthetics as well as functional reasons has been the objective of various mucogingival problems. This has been achieved by pedicle grafts and free grafts like autogenous free gingival grafts and subepithelial connective tissue grafts.
When adequate gingiva exists, repositioning it over the denuded root surface provides the most esthetic result. However, adequate gingiva does not always exist in adjacent locations. For this reason, grafting of gingiva from a remote location is often required to augment the area Traditionally, this augmentation of the gingival complex at the time of root coverage has been performed with autogenous free gingival grafts or connective tissue grafts harvested from the palate. Considering, the invasiveness of the subepithelial connective tissue graft technique, root coverage was done with autogenous free gingival grafts in this study.
First described by Bjom (1963) free gingival grafts have been widely used in the treatment of certain mucogingival problems like lack of attached gingiva and gingival recession. By using this technique, attached gingiva can be increased in a very predictable way. Furthermore, the results obtained using this procedure have been reported to be stable. Although gingival grafting is a procedure with few clinical complications, excessive hemorrhage of the donor area, failure in the graft union, delay in healing and esthetic alterations due to disparity in the colour of the palatal gingiva with respect to the grafted area, have been described. In addition, a few reports of exostoses developing after the placement of a free gingival graft have also been published .
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