Ultrasonographic Assessment of Palatal Wound Healing

Palatal-tissue harvesting is a routinely performed procedure in periodontal plastic surgery. Subepithelial connective tissue graft (sCTG) is considered the gold standard in root coverage. However, over the years, several materials have been attempted to accelerate wound healing and to decrease the post-operative patient discomfort and pain, which are considered the most common disadvantages of tissue harvesting from the palate. Reharvesting from the same region could be necessary in some complicated gingical recessions. For this reason, patients may face long treatment times due to recovery periods of the palate between surgeries. Platelet-rich fibrin (PRF) which has 3-dimensional fibrin matrix structure contributes to regeneration of surgical wounds by releasing growth factors for 10-14 days and showing angiogenic properties. In medicine and dentistry, ultrasonography (USG) method can be used to measure tissue thickness, vascularization, elasticity and blood flow. USG, as a non-invasive method, can provide objective data in evaluating the effects of surgical techniques and biomaterials used on soft tissue healing dynamics and tissue perfusion. The investigators hypothesised that leukocyte rich PRF (L-PRF) application to the palatal area after sCTG harvesting could increase palatal tissue thickness and vascularity throughout 3-month follow-up period compared to the controls. Therefore, in this study, the investigators aimed to evaluate the effects of the L-PRF membrane on soft tissue donor site healing after harvesting sCTG in terms of wound healing dynamics using USG method.