How Painful is CTG: Connective Tissue Graft?
Most techniques with gum grafts, despite the name, use only the inner part of this mucous lining structure - the connective tissue. There are numerous advantages in using this method - faster and less painful healing at the site of graft removal is one of them -, but the absence of scars and differences in color between the recipient area and the new grafted tissue is what is most indicated. technique.
The palate, in the area close to the premolars, is the standard donor region for tissues used in grafts. The most used technique currently only detaches the gum from this area so that the dentist removes the connective tissue located immediately below it – once this is done, the gum is sutured in its original position again. Other techniques choose to remove the entire donor gingiva, which can be used in its entirety – free gingival graft technique – or just the innermost connective tissue by posterior cutting.
Recovery Time for Gum Grafting
The recovery time for gum graft surgery depends on several factors. Extension and location of the grafted tissue, the two most important, give the measure of restrictions in the postoperative period of the treatment. In addition to them, conditions such as gingival biotype – thin gums bring challenges to the technique – and the type of dental arch also imply success rates and care in surgical therapies with grafted tissues.
The absence of post-surgical signs such as color changes, swelling and surgical scars are practically invisible 30 days after the procedure. However, unlike surgery for retraction without the use of grafts, grafted tissues may require up to 120 days of waiting for the new tissue architecture to stabilize in shape and volume – time which one should wait to start, for example, procedures with ceramic laminates.
Graft collection site can bring painful discomfort
Despite the post-operative care being more intense in the operated site, it is in the donor area that the recovery time from surgery with gingival graft can be longer – and, in some cases, painful. The technique that only collects the joint tissue of the palate, without removing the gum itself (lining mucosa), provides a simpler and faster postoperative period, with care that ceases after the first seven days of surgery.
The joint removal of gums and connective tissue has a prolonged recovery time and can be painful in the first three days after surgery. Biosynthetic materials or membranes produced from centrifugation (intense, quick spinning in a special machine- called a centrifuge) of the patient's own blood eliminate or reduce painful symptoms in these areas and may be an option for more sensitive patients.
Healing time
Gums and other oral mucosa heal more slowly compared to the skin. It is no coincidence that the sutures are only removed on the fourteenth day of the surgery, a period in which the discoloration and edema are already aesthetically compatible with social and professional activities. Thirty days later, even the areas that were incised and perforated with sutures are imperceptible in most situations, the expected average recovery time for the procedure.
Procedures for covering an exposed tooth root (gingival retraction), with or without the use of tissue graft, require a minimum of 120 days to start procedures with fixed dental prostheses, dental contact lenses or porcelain veneers. This long waiting period is essential for the gums to appear with consolidated fibrosity and thickness, two characteristics whose modifications are slower compared to the disappearance of edemas, redness, and tissue scars.