An investigation of gingival topography in man by means of analytical stereophotogrammetry

Abstract

Abstract

With the aid of a stereomicroscope fitted with two cameras, changes in the topography of the gingiva in vivo has been quantitativly evaluated. During the exposures the patient was fixed to the camera system by means of a biting plate. The changes in gingival topography were studied during a 180-day observation period in six cases after mucoperiosteal flap operation and gingivectomy. The gingival topography was evaluated in the direction of photography, the depth, and also in a plane perpendicular to it. The postsurgical swelling was most pronounced after three days. Expressed as volume increase per unit area it amounted on average to 0.6 mm³ per mm². The subsidence of swelling was slower following the flap operation. During the subsequent period of observation (30 to 180 days) a gingival remodelling was observed which, interdentally, involved a coronally directed remigration of the gingival margin by nearly 50 per cent.