attached gingiva

Attached gingiva is resistant to masticatory forces and always keratinised.

It appears as a swelling on attached gingiva or interdental papilla.

The attached gingiva is continuous with the marginal gingiva.

Attached gingiva may present with surface stippling.

The clinical importance of the mucogingival junction is in measuring the width of attached gingiva.

In about half of individuals, it is demarcated from the adjacent, attached gingiva by a shallow linear depression, the free gingival groove.

A band of red atrophic or eroded mucosa affecting the attached gingiva is known as dequamative gingivitis.

In the epithelium of the mouth, the attached gingiva exhibit rete pegs, while the sulcular and junctional epithelia do not.

Without attached gingiva, the freely moveable alveolar mucosa, being more fragile, would suffer injury during eating and cleansing activities, such as brushing of the teeth.

The facial aspect of the attached gingiva extends to the relatively loose and movable alveolar mucosa, from which it is demarcated by the mucogingival junction.

Masticatory mucosa, para-keratinized stratified squamous epithelium, found on the dorsum of the tongue, hard palate and attached gingiva.

Stippling only presents on the attached gingiva bound to underlying alveolar bone, not the freely moveable alveolar mucosa.

The periodontal probe can also be used to measure other dental instruments, tooth preparations during restorative procedures, gingival recession, attached gingiva, and oral lesions or pathologies.

They serve to stabilize the marginal gingiva by uniting it with both the tissue of the more rigid attached gingiva as well as the cementum layer of the tooth.

Unlike plaque-induced inflammation it is a dusky red colour and extends beyond the marginal gingiva, often to the full width of the attached gingiva and sometimes onto the alveolar mucosa.

Attached gingiva is important because it is bound very tightly to the underlying alveolar bone and provides protection to the mucosa during functional use of the structures of the oral cavity during function, such as chewing.

If the destruction continues unabated apically and reaches the junction of the attached gingiva and alveolar mucosa, the pocket would thus be in violation of the mucogingival junction and would be termed a mucogingival defect.

Thus, if the entire height of the keratinized gingiva, from the free gingival margin to the mucogingival junction is 8 mm, and the probing depth on the tooth at that location is 2 mm, the effective width of attached gingiva is 6 mm.

Using the mucogingival junction as the boundary demarcating the apical border of the attached gingiva, a periodontal probe in inserted into the gingival sulcus to measure how much of the keratinized gingiva coronal to the mucogingival junction is in fact attached to the underlying bone.