AIMS: To evaluate the relationship of gingival thickness, which has been considered as an important factor in the development of gingival recession secondary to orthodontic tooth movement, with gender and age.
SUBJECTS AND METHOD: A total of 182 periodontally healthy individuals (117 females, 65 males), who presented for orthodontic treatment were enrolled in this study. There were two age groups; 131 individuals under the age of 18 years were assigned to group 1 and 51 individuals over the age of 18 years were assigned to group 2. Maxillary and mandibular anterior gingival thicknesses (MAXAGT and MANAGT) were determined by the arithmetic mean of gingival thicknesses measured by the transgingival probing technique from the coronal mucogingival junction and apical of the free gingival sulcus. The arithmetic mean of gingival thickness was determined by the ratio of the sum of gingival thickness of the relevant teeth to the number of teeth. A Student’s t- and Chi-square tests were used to determine whether there was a significant difference between males and females and between groups 1 and 2 in terms of MAXAGT and MANAGT.

RESULTS: The mean MANAGT was 0.703 ± 0.153 mm in females and 0.759 ± 0.197 mm in males and MAXAGT was 1.104 ± 0.239 mm and 1.165 ± 0.220 mm in females and males, respectively. The prevalence of a thin biotype was 65.5 and 34.5 per cent for the mandibular anterior region and 74.4 and 25.6 per cent for the maxillary anterior region in females and males, respectively. While there was no statistically significant difference between females and males in terms of prevalence of a thin biotype in the maxillary anterior region, gingival thickness in the mandibular anterior region was lower in females than in males (P = 0.036). MANAGT was 0.715 ± 0.171 in group 1 and 0.742 ± 0.175 in group 2; whereas, MAXAGT was 1.158 ± 0.233 in group 1 and 1.041 ± 0.217 in group 2. No significant difference was determined between groups 1 and 2 in terms of mandibular anterior gingival thickness, however, maxillary anterior gingival thickness was statistically lower in group 2 (P = 0.002).

CONCLUSION: Gingival thickness of the mandibular anterior region is lower in females than in males and gingival thickness of the maxillary anterior region is lower in group 2.