Assessment of Patients’ Satisfaction following Coverage of Gingival Recessions: Questionnaire-Based Case Series

Abstract

Summary Background/Aim: One of the most important goals of periodontal plastic surgery constitutes the predictable root coverage. Despite the thorough documentation that several surgical approaches can be implemented for the successful treatment of gingival recession (GR), only limited papers reported data on the evaluation according to patient’s opinion. Thus, the forthcoming study is aiming in the patient-based assessment of the outcome of root coverage procedures. Material and Methods: Sixteen subjects (eight male, eight female; mean age 43.75 years, range: 23-73 years), with twenty one GRs, constituted the sample of this study and the root coverage procedures were executed in the period from 2011 to 2019. A patient-based questionnaire was used to assess the level of subjects’ concern on various aspects related to the GR, preand post-operatively. Patient’s overall post-operative satisfaction was evaluated with a VAS. Results: After a period of at least 6 months of the surgical treatment, the majority of the subjects indicated that they were not concerned for all the examined criteria. The criteria with the highest improvement (reported as improvement by at least two levels of concern pre- and post-operatively) were the following: 1) fear to lose the involved teeth and 2) esthetics of the area of the recession defect. With regard to esthetics’ criteria, the majority of the patients indicated post-operatively the examined criteria as not important. The esthetics’ criteria yielding the highest improvement were: 1) position of the teeth and 2) the fact that the teeth showed longer. Mean patient’s overall post-operative satisfaction was 82,3 (range: 0-100). Conclusions: The majority of the subjects were satisfied from the implemented root coverage procedures. Few studies on the international literature have evaluated patient satisfaction following therapy. Comprehensive, multi-center studies, comprised of a large sample and a using a standardized approach are needed in future research.