A clinical comparison of two flap designs for coronal advancement of the gingival margin: semilunar versus coronally advanced flap

Santana RB, Mattos CML, Dibart S. A clinical comparison of two flap designs for coronal advancement of the gingival margin: semilunar versus coronally advanced flap. J Clin Periodontol 2010; 37: 651–658. doi: 10.1111/j.1600‐051X.2010.01582.x. Background: The semilunar incision was introduced in oral surgery more than a century ago. The semilunar coronally re‐positioned flap (SLCRF) is one of the variants of this procedure; however, no previous controlled clinical study has evaluated the SLCRF performed as originally described. The objective of the present study was to compare the clinical outcomes of the SLCRF and coronally advanced flap (CAF) procedure in the treatment of maxillary Miller class I recession (GR) defects. Materials and Methods: Twenty‐two patients, with 22 contra‐lateral Miller class I GR defects, were randomly assigned to CAF or SLCRF. Clinical parameters assessed included recession height, width of keratinized tissue, probing depth, vertical clinical attachment level, visual plaque score and bleeding on probing. Clinical recordings were performed at baseline and 6 months later. Inter‐measurements differences were analysed with a χ2 or a paired t‐test, with significance set at α