Surgical advances in the coverage of exposed roots.

A review of the past year's literature on the coverage of exposed roots reveals that surgical advances have centered on the use of membranes for guided tissue regeneration as well as surgical ingenuity combining subepithelial connective tissue with previously described root coverage techniques. In this review, the articles are critiqued, and their clinical significance is discussed. Surgical correction of exposed roots has become a remarkably successful and predictable procedure with either connective tissue or guided tissue regeneration. In most cases, connective tissue grafting for root coverage should be preferred to guided tissue regeneration, and the use of epithelialized palatal tissue (free gingival graft) for root coverage is a dated procedure.