Fourteen-year outcomes of coronally advanced flap for root coverage: follow-up from a randomized trial.

Trial Design:This long-term 14-year-randomized split-mouth study aimed atevaluating (1) the outcomes of two different methods of root surface modifications(root surface polishingversusroot planing) used in combination with a coronallyadvanced flap (CAF) and (2) the long-term results of CAF performed for the treatmentof single gingival recessions.Methods:Ten patients with similar bilateral recessionsX2 mm were selected for asplit-mouth randomized design study. Exposed root surfaces were assigned to receivepolishing (test sites) or root planing (control sites). A multilevel model was used toanalyse data at 3 months, 1, 5 and 14 years.Results:One patient dropped out after 1 year. At 14 years, recession depth (Rec) was0.9 (1.2) mm for the test sites and 0.9 (0.9) mm for the control sites. The interactionbetween treatment and keratinized tissue was significant (p50.0035). Rec increasedslightly over time (p50.0006) in both the groups.Conclusions:This study shows that during a long-term follow-up, gingival recessionrecurred in 39% of the treated sites following the CAF procedure.