Dr Nami Farkhondeh reviews soft tissue morphology around single tooth dental implants in dentistry study
The study was undertaken by me and reviews about my work can be seen here http://www.namifarkhondehreviews.co.uk/
It has been over ten years since I carried out my dissertation into the factors affecting the appearance of the gum around single tooth dental implants and crowns in the visible area. The subject is even more topical these days as the placement of dental implants becomes a more routine in replacing missing teeth and with increasing expectations of the public, not only in achieving a long lasting replacement for their missing teeth but also one that looks natural and mimics the original contour of their teeth and gums.
The main aim of the study was a follow up to that carried out by Tarnow to assess whether the distance from where the crowns meet on a dental implant to the underling bone affects how the gum tissues grow in between the implant crown and adjacent teeth. The question that we aimed to answer was whether, if this distance was 5mm or less the gum tissue would always be present and fully formed while above 5mm the presence of this gum would be far more unpredictable.
A secondary aim of this study was to assess patient satisfaction with the appearance of the crown and surrounding gum. Twenty-eight subjects were chosen for this study and each had the distance measured from the contact points of their implant crowns on both sides of the crown. Patient satisfaction was measured by a patient questionnaire.
Results confirmed previous clinical findings and also found that patients themselves were in general very happy with the appearance of the implant crowns even if clinicians were not.
Further studies have been carried out since this dissertation and its publication including that by Ferreira-Lopes and they have confirmed our findings.
The three points that dentists should take from both our findings and other research into this field are:
1) The importance of optimal positioning of a dental implant in the first instance.
2) The ability of the treating dentist to be able to predict the likelihood of gum contour prior to implant placement and hence allow the patient to properly consent to their treatment.
3) Patient perceptions are generally less critical than dentists but this should not stand in the way of the implant dentist aiming to achieve the optimal appearance for their patient.
A press release on the above subject was published recently: http://goo.gl/QmZWS0
