Comparative evaluation of oxygenating agent “blue m gel” and traditional periodontal dressing “Coe-Pak” on patient preference parameters (Pain and wound healing) after surgical depigmentation – A split mouth study

Individuals with high lip line and gummy smile when accompanied withdark colored gingiva have an esthetic concern while smiling. For the management of gingival hyperpigmentation surgical technique with scalpel is still considered the gold standard, although healing may occur by secondary intension and oxygen is one of the essential nutrients for cellular metabolism and production of energy through ATP. It is also involved in collagen synthesis, oxygenative killing of bacteria and angiogenesis. To clinically evaluate and compare the effectiveness of oxygenating agent (Blue M Gel) and traditional periodontal dressing COE-PAK on patient preference parameters (pain and wound healing) after surgical depigmentation. This split-mouth randomized clinical trial was conducted on 5 non-smoking individuals aged 20–40 years irrespective of gender with maxillary or mandibular physiologic gingival pigmentation class (III) and (IV) according to the Dummett–Gupta Oral Pigmentation Index (10 treated sites) who had requested an esthetic treatment for gingival hyperpigmentation of the maxillary or mandibular gingiva. The maxilla or the mandible was randomly divided into two symmetrical parts i.e. from the right second premolar to the midline and from the midline to the left second premolar—to receive either Blue M gel or Coe-Pak as a periodontal dressing after surgical depigmentation with a scalpel. Patient preference parameters such as pain was assessed after 24 hours and 7 days of intervention and re-epithelisation index with toluidine blue was assessed after 1 week and 1 month of intervention. The result of the study demonstrated that pain score and re-epithelisation score was less in Test group (Blue M Gel) as compared to control group (COE-PAK) and was found to be statistically significant. :It can be concluded that Blue M gel can also be a better alternative as a periodontal dressing compared to COE-PAK due to its properties of better healing and decreasing post-operative pain.