Mucogingival Aesthetic Surgery by Dr. Giacomo Tarquini

Mucogingival aesthetic surgery is dedicated to the treatment of mucogingival aesthetic alterations. These may be caused by gingival recession, often in association with abrasion and/or root caries or, conversely, altered passive eruption. The aims of mucogingival aesthetic surgery may also be to augment gingival width and height around prostheses or implants and to fill out edentulous ridges.

The appropriateness of covering a gingival recession present on one or more dental elements is subject to several factors; thus, we recognize indications related to aesthetic demands by the patient, to phenomena of dentinal hypersensitivity affecting one or more dental elements, to the need to locally increase a condition of poor adherent gingiva such as to make oral hygiene difficult, and to the presence of cervical lesions that may be carious or noncarious in origin.

The pathway the clinician must necessarily undertake before addressing the therapy of gingival recessions consists of formulating a correct diagnosis, recognizing and correcting the etiological factors that led to the appearance of gingival recession, and recognizing and correcting the factors that may have favored this pathology: this process is of fundamental importance, since it is necessary first of all to the selection of the most appropriate surgical technique and, secondly, to prevent the recurrence of gingival recession over time.