Comparison of Anaesthesia use, Posto-perative Healing and complications Across Surgical, Electrosurgical, and Laser Gingivectomy: A Prospective Clinical Study

OBJECTIVE: To compare gingivectomy methods based on the type & amount of anesthesia and healing after various gingival procedures. METHODOLOGY: In this prospective study data was collected from the OPDs of Bahria University of Health Sciences, and Dow University of Health Sciences, Karachi, from March 2023 to February 2024. 80 patients aged 15-75 years underwent gingivectomy for different background causes were included. Patients with any systemic disease, periodontal disease, terminally ill, alcoholics and individuals on steroids were excluded. The Fisher's exact test was done to establish a relationship between the categorical variables. P-value was set at < 0.05. SPSS V.26 was used for data recording. RESULTS: Eighty participants revealed that surgical gingivectomy was 61.25% more practiced than electrocautery(31.55%) and laser gingivectomy(7.50%). 63.9% preferred local anesthesia for surgical gingivectomy, 34.7% opted for electrocautery. Furthermore, a combination of topical(83.3%) and local anesthesia(1.4%) was used in laser gingivectomy. 3-5 vials were used in electrocautery, 4 in surgical and 1-3 vials in laser gingivectomy. Postoperative healing was observed in all three techniques. Pain was the most common complaint. CONCLUSION: Surgical gingivectomy was the most common technique. Laser gingivectomy was suggested to be most feasible, less time consuming and has best hemorrhage control. Maximum vials were used in surgical gingivectomy and least in laser-assisted. It is preferable to select a technique based on the extent of the area of interest, site of involvement, expected postoperative outcomes, biotype of the gingiva and factor of affordability at the patient’s end.