Effectiveness of Adjunctive Hyaluronic Acid Application in Surgical Treatment of Gingival Recession Sites

Abstract

The aim of this systematic scoping review was to provide scientific evidence on the efficacy and methods of application of hyaluronic acid (HA) in the coverage of gingival recessions in terms of recession depth (RD) reduction, clinical attachment level (CAL) gain and probing depth (PD). An electronic search of the literature on the main databases was conducted. Initially, 405 articles were identified. Finally, four studies were included after the review process. It was not possible to perform a meta-analysis of the articles selected because of the differences among the surgical treatments and commercial formulations and compositions of HA. Both randomized controlled trials in this research examined type 1 gingival recessions treated with a coronally advanced flap. In the selected case series, recessions were treated with either a modified coronally advanced tunnel or laterally closed tunnel combined with a subepithelial connective tissue graft and HA. No significant variation was found in terms of PD. Modifications of CAL are connected to variations of RD; however, RD reduction is similar to the control group. HA seems to improve the clinical outcomes of gingival recession coverage in the short term, but the magnitude is limited. Formulations, surgical techniques and application methods are heterogeneous.