The increase with age of the width of attached gingiva

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Abstract
The purpose of the study was to determine the variation with age of the width of attached gingiva and the location of the mucogingival junction. The material comprised orthopantomograms of 20 male and 20 female dental students aged 20–30 years and 20 male and 20 female adults aged 39–51 years. All the subjects had practically full dentitions and no supraerupted teeth. The mucogingival junctions were revealed with Schiller's iodine solution and marked with short pieces of metal wire, attached to the teeth and gingivae with Squibb's Orahesive Dental Bandage in the midline of the facial surface of each tooth. The orthopantomograms were taken with the X‐ray beam passing the horizontally positioned occlusal level at a –5° angle. From the radiographs the distance from the cemento‐enamel to the mucogingival junction was measured to the nearest millimeter separately for each tooth. In the mandible also the distance from the mucogingival junction to the lower border of the jaw was assessed accordingly. The results showed that the measured anatomical width of attached gingiva does not differ between sexes but also that it increases significantly with age. The distance between the mucogingival junction and the lower border of the mandible did not increase with age. It was concluded that the mucogingival junction remains at a probably genetically predetermined location while the teeth move in an occlusal direction through adult life. In the absence of concurrent retraction of the gingival margin this results in an increase of the width of attached gingiva with advancing age.