Background and Objectives: Gingival melanin pigmentation may be seen across all races and at any age, and it is without gender predilection. Although melanin pigmentation of the gingiva is completely benign and does not present a medical problem, patient’s complain of “black gums” is common due to their unacceptable aesthetics which demands cosmetic therapy. Many attempts have been made in the past to answer this cosmetic demand and eliminate these dark patches of pigmentation using procedures like split thickness epithelial excision, gingival abrasion, free gingival grafts, electrosurgery, scraping technique, cryosurgery, laser therapy etc have been used. In order to find a better technique and also to study the rate of depigmentation this study was conducted to determine the efficiency of cryosurgery and scraping technique for the treatment of gingival pigmentation.
Method: This study was conducted on 10 subjects, aged between 15 to 25 years, with hyperpigmented gingiva on the facial aspect of the maxillary and mandibular anteriors. Right side was chosen for cryosurgical procedure and the left for surgical scraping technique. Photographs & DOPI of each patient, preoperatively and postoperatively after 1month, 3months, 6months and 9 months were taken.
Results: At 6 months, statistically significant rate of recurrence of pigmentation was seen with cryosurgery as compared to scraping technique but at 9 months both the techniques showed same rate of recurrence of pigmentation.
Conclusion: It can thus be concluded that statistically there is no significant difference between scraping technique and cryosurgery in terms of efficiency and rate of repigmentation.
