Soft tissue grafting – established techniques and new materials
Soft tissue deficiencies can occur around natural teeth and dental implants.
Many techniques have evolved in particular in the field of plastic periodontal surgery to treat gingival recessions. It, however, became clear over time, that most of the flap techniques should be combined with subepithelial connective tissue grafts, in order to increase the volume of the tissue and avoid tissue relapse. Nowadays tunnelling techniques in conjunction with connective tissue grafts can predictably cover denuded root surfaces. On the other hand harvesting connective tissue grafts increase patient morbidity due to second site surgical harvesting. Therefore xenogenic materials such DERMA® have been developed to avoid opening a second surgical site. Recent research clearly shows, that these materials are tissue friendly can integrated without any foreign body reactions. In the field of implant dentistry tissue volume is also needed in many indications. Xenogenic materials can help in these situations to limit the surgical time and patient morbidity. The goal of this interactive webinar will be to show established techniques in the field of plastic periodontal and implant surgery, but also to report about new developments such xenogenic materials and discuss their field of indications.