Evaluation of Mucograft® in increasing the peri-implant soft tissue thickness in the esthetic zone.

Objective: To study the effect of Collagen matrix Mucograft (CM) in enhancing the soft tissue thickness around immediate implants (II) in comparison to palatal connective tissue grafts (SCTG). Subjects & methods: This randomized, controlled clinical trial included 16 patients, who were randomly divided into test (IIP +CM) and control (IIP+SCTG) groups. Clinical parameters evaluated at baseline, 3-months, and 6-months were papillary bleeding index (PBI), gingival index (GI), facial probing depth (FPD), palatal probing depth (PPD). Direct measurements of gingival thickness were evaluated at baseline and 6-months follow up. Pink esthetic score (PES) and white esthetic score (WES) were evaluated at the end of the study. Results: No statistical difference in the PBI (-0.156 ±0.44) and GI (-0.175 ±0.74) of the test group compared to the control group (0.484 ±0.63) and (0.469 ±0.59) respectively. On the other hand, there was reduction in the facial probing depth in control group (-0.056 ±0.20) compared to the test group (0.351 ±0.13). Direct measurement of the gingival thickness reflected an increase in the gingival thickness in both groups at 2, 4 and 6 mm from the FGM. Though, there was a significant difference in the average gingival thickness in favor of control group (0.493 ±0.30) compared to the test group (0.215b ±0.56). The PES/WES in the both groups were \u3e7 reveling a satisfactory esthetic result in all patients included in this study. Conclusion: Improvement of the facial peri-implant soft tissue thickness can be achieved using soft tissue grafts. Palatal SCTG improved the gingival thickness around immediate implants better than CM. CM offered less patient morbidity, homogenous color with the surrounding soft tissue and shorter surgical time