Evaluation of the accuracy of measuring the thickness of palatal tissue by different methods

The main donor graft has the palatal mucosa as its main donor area. The thickness of the connective tissue is important in view of the fact that very thin grafts can fail. Although knowing the thickness of the palatal mucosa is important to improve the predictability of various surgical procedures, this assessment is ignored due to the lack of reliable planning methods for this purpose. In this study, an individual was evaluated making 3 markings on the palatal region, at a distance of 5 mm from the cervical palate of the first molar, second premolar and first premolar. To measure the markings, three methods were used: directly in the tomographic image (Group 1), in the superimposition of the computed tomography with scanning of the plaster model obtained from the patient’s mouth (Group 2) and in the superimposition of the computed tomography and the scanning directly in mouth (Group 3), comparing with the gold standard using a needle with an endodontic stop at the three demarcated sites. Group 1 that represented the TCFC was the one that presented values closer to the gold standard values compared to the other two methods, and the first premolar and first molar regions were the regions that showed the least difference when compared to the gold standard. According to this study and its limitations, the group 1 method (CBTC) was the one that came closest to the gold standard in the three measured points, when compared with the other methods. Therefore, the use of CBTC to assess the thickness of the palatal mucosa is the most indicated.