Use of upper-lid blepharoplasty full-thickness skin for peri-implant keratinized tissue grafting: a report of 2 cases.

Patients with an edentulous atrophic mandible re-stored with endosseous dental implants frequentlyhave an inadequate zone of keratinized tissue in theperi-implant region. Soft tissue reconstructive proce-dures are commonly required to establish a zone ofkeratinized tissue adjacent to the supracrestal implantstructure that will resist abrasion and adhere tightly tounderlying bone and provide a tight marginal seal. Avariety of procedures have been described to accom-plish this goal, such as free gingival grafts, allografts,pedicle grafts, and split-thickness skin grafts (STSG).This report presents the technique and describes 2cases that involved use of skin harvested from anupper eyelid blepharoplasty to augment the zone ofkeratinized tissue in edentulous implant patients.