Tunnel With and Without Intramucosal Vertical Incisions

Thirty patients will be treated: 15 with a coronally positioned tunnel technique plus intramucosal verticals with AlloDerm® (test treatment) and 15 with a coronally positioned tunnel technique alone with AlloDerm® (control treatment). The surgical procedure for the control sites will consist of a coronally positioned tunnel preparation that is a modification of a previous tunnel technique described by Allen AL (Allen AL, 1994a/1994b). This tunnel technique was modified to include coronal positioning of the soft tissue over an allograft (E.P Allen). The surgical procedure for the test sites will consist of a coronally positioned tunnel preparation (E.P. Allen) plus the use of mesial and/or distal intramucosal verticals, a modification of the vestibular incision subperiosteal tunnel access (VISTA) approach (Zadeh H, 2011). Each patient will provide at least one Miller Class I or II facial recession defect, ≥ 3 mm. Patients will be randomly selected by a coin toss to receive either the test or control treatment. Three exams for measurements will be performed per patient on total: preoperative, at week eight and 16 (4 months) postoperatively. The primary aim is to compare the percent root coverage obtained with acellular dermal matrix using the coronally positioned tunnel technique alone or with intramucosal verticals.