Clinical and anatomical factors limiting treatment outcomes of gingival recession: a new method to predetermine the line of root coverage.

Complete root coverage is not always achievable, even in gingival recession with no loss of interproximal attachment and bone. The cemento-enamel junction is the most widely used referring parameter to evaluate root coverage results. The aim of the present study was to describe the most frequent diagnostic mistakes that may lead to incomplete root coverage in Miller Class I and II gingival recessions and to suggest a method to predetermine the level/line of root coverage in non-molar teeth. The line of root coverage (i.e., the level/line to which the soft tissue margin will be positioned after the healing process of a root coverage surgical technique) was predetermined by calculating the ideal vertical dimension of the interdental papilla of the tooth with the recession defect. This method was applied to 120 recession-type defects affecting non-molar teeth of 80 young healthy subjects that were treated with root coverage surgical procedures over the last 5 years. All recessions were Miller Class I or II and were associated with at least one of the following characteristics: 1) traumatic loss of the tip of the interdental papilla(e); 2) tooth rotation; 3) tooth extrusion with or without occlusal abrasion; and 4) a cervical abrasion defect with no evidence of the cemento-enamel junction. The line of root coverage may be considered the clinical cemento-enamel junction because it may substitute the anatomic cemento-enamel junction when this is no longer clinically visible on the tooth with recession or when the ideal conditions to obtain complete root coverage are not fully represented.