LAUSR

BACKGROUND Although soft tissue substitutes showed promising improvement in the last decade, epithelialized gingival graft (EGG) is still widely used in periodontal plastic surgery applications. Donor site management after EGG harvesting has been challenging for clinicians. This study aimed to compare the effectiveness of cyanoacrylate, hyaluronic acid, and their combination in palatal donor site management after EGG harvesting. METHODS Data from 89 patients were included and categorized as gelatin sponge (GS), gelatin sponge with either cyanoacrylate (GS+CY), hyaluronic acid (GS+HA), or GS+CY+HA. The data of pain perception (PP), quantity of analgesics (QA), secondary bleeding (SB), epithelization level (EL), and color match (CM) were assessed retrospectively. RESULTS GS+CY and GS+HA+CY groups showed lower PP scores compared to GS and GS+HA groups (p<0.05). The QA was higher in GS group compared to GS+CY and GS+HA+CY groups (p<0.001). All study groups showed greater EL than GS group on day 7 (p<0.001). On day 14, full EL was present in 81% of the patients in GS+HA+CY group, which was higher than the other groups (p<0.001). All study groups reported lower SB in the first 3 days which was lower compared to GS group (p<0.001) and showed higher CM scores than GS group on days 7 and 14 (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS CY application reduces pain and analgesic intake and HA may support the wound healing with increased EL. Using the CY-HA combination provides additional benefits for donor site management. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.