Mohamed Y. Abdelfattah^{1, 2,}, Haytham Moharam³, Mohamed Fahmi⁴, Ahmed Kossar⁵

Background: Insufficient sulcular depth dramatically affects denture retention and stability. Preprosthetic sulcular deepening could be carried out either with lasers, conventional surgeries or, electrocautery to afford the required sulcular length. Purpose: compare pain, discomfort, wound healing results and gained vestibular depth of Er: YAG laser and the conventional surgical vestibuloplasty techniques. Materials and Methods: 18 patients who suffered from severely atrophic mandibular ridge were randomly allocated to go through vestibuloplasty either by laser (L) or conventional surgery (S). Visual analysis scale (VAS) of pain and discomfort used to assess pain and discomfort along the 1^st. 3^rd. 7^th. days and three pointer scale for healing to assess healing process at the 1^st. 3^rd. 7^th. and 21^st. day. The gained vestibular depth was measured immediately after surgery, one month, 3 and six months postoperatively. The obtained data were investigated for intergroup and intragroup comparison using an independent t-test and a student paired t-test and Friedman tests. Results: VAS scores of pain and discomfort within the laser group in the 1^st, 3^rd and the 7^th days exhibited a significant difference (p<0.05). Laser group patients exhibit lower pain and discomfort scores in comparison with conventional surgical patients. The 1^st, 3^rd and the 7^th days results of the 3-pointer scale exposed better wound healing scores in the laser group compared to the conventional surgical group. The gained ridge height of the mandible in laser group was more stable without rebound on the 1^st. 3^rd. and 6^th. months compared to the conventional surgical group. Conclusion: Er: Yag laser vestibuloplasty has better patient’s perception, healing outcomes and improvement of the vestibular depth than conventional surgical vestibuloplasty.

conventional surgical vestibuloplasty, laser, preprosthetic surgery