Pre-operative, chair-side Zn-containing surgical stents affect morbidity and wound healing after free gingival graft harvesting: a randomized clinical trial

OBJECTIVE: To compare a pre-operatively, chair-side made, zinc-containing surgical stent (ZN) and suturing of a gelatin-based hemostatic agent (HA) on palatal wound healing and patient morbidity after free gingival graft surgery (FGG). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Sixty patients requiring FGG were randomly divided into two groups to receive either a ZN or a sterile HA sutured on the surgical area. Patients were evaluated at 1st, 3rd, 7th, 14th, 28th, and 56th days following surgery. Overall surgical time, donor site surgical time, postoperative pain (PP), delayed bleeding (DB), changes in dietary habits (DH), burning sensation (BS), completion of re-epithelialization (CE), and patients' discomfort (PD) were evaluated. RESULTS: Donor site surgical time, PP, DB, DH, BS were statistically significantly lower in the ZN group together with faster completion of re-epithelialization compared to the HA group. CONCLUSION: Pre-operatively, chair-side made, zinc-containing surgical stents provided significant benefits for wound healing parameters and patients' postoperative morbidity after FGG harvesting. CLINICAL RELEVANCE: The results show that using Zn-containing palatal stent after free gingival graft surgery significantly reduces pain and patient morbidity during the postoperative period.