Comparative clinical evaluation of freeze-dried skin allografts and autogenous gingival grafts in humans.

Freeze-dried skin (FDS) allografts and fresh autogenous free gingival grafts (FGG) were placed in five paired sites in four patients. Both types of grafts healed uneventfully. Evaluation over a 1-year period demonstrated no statistically or clinically significant differences between the FDS and FGG when: a) increase in the width of keratinized gingiva, b) decrease in recession, c) decrease in sulcus depth, k) gain in attachment level, or e) percent shrinkage of the graft were compared. It was concluded that FDS performs essentially similar to FGG in the correction of mucogingival problems, and has the advantages of decreased patient morbidity (no donor site) and availability of abundant amounts of graft material when needed.