Influence of Electric Stimulation on Palatal Wound Healing. Partial Results

Objectives: Repair is a fundamental mechanism for tissue maintenance. Literature has shown that electrotherapy may enhance the skin wound healing by increasing growth factors resealing and cell migration toward the wound. Harvesting grafts from palatal area is a common procedure in periodontal plastic techniques and it has been reported that this approach can cause some degree of morbidity and discomfort. Therefore, a treatment for the palatal area is of great interest to help healing the wounds in the donor area. The aim of this study was to clinically evaluate the 3-month outcomes of the electrical stimulation on palatal wounds.
Methods: Twenty patients in need of ridge preservation were randomly divided either to 1) Sham Group, free gingival graft and sham electrical stimulation on the palatal wound or 2) Test Group, free gingival graft and electric electrical stimulation on the palatal wound. An alternating current of 100uA and 9kHz, for 120 seconds and 5 days was used. Clinical and patient-centered outcomes were assessed.
Results: After 7 days, the mean remaining wound area was 36.6±5.0mm² for the Sham group and 30.6±7.2mm² for the Test group (p<0.05). In addition, the mean wound re-epithelialization was 18.6±13% for the Sham group and 30.7±17.7% for the Test group (p<0.05). Both groups presented similar tissue thickness after 90 days, 3.99±0.6mm for the Sham group and 4.05±0.5mm for the Test group. Moreover, patients who received the electrotherapy reported less pain at the second, third, and fourth days postoperative (p<0.05).
Conclusions: Within the limits of this preliminary analysis, electrotherapy may improve the wound closure and reduce the postoperative pain after free gingival graft removal in palatal area.