AbstractThe clinical results achieved were compared when a group of 21 patients requiring gingivectomies in comparable bilateral segments received a dressing or a chlorhexidine mouthwash during the first post‐operative week. Initial pre‐operative conditions were comparable. In each of the two treatments highly significant reductions in pocket depths were achieved; the sizes of the reductions were of clinical significance (>1.5 mm). The observed difference (0.16 mm) between the two treatments in favour of the mouthwash, although significant at the conventional 5 % level, was clinically unimportant. More patients preferred the dressing as a post‐operative treatment, and the clinical implications of the patients' preferences are disc