Background: The anatomy of soft tissues around dental implants is extremely important to prevent inflammatory periimplant diseases and ensure healthy, stable and long-term survival of a dental implant. Various methods and materials for increasing the physiological thickness of tissues have been described including connective tissue graft (CTG) and xenogenic collagen matrix (XCM). While assessing various materials it is necessary to establish objective measurement method to determine the minimum amount of tissue thickness to maintain a stable level of bone around the implant. The aim of the study was to determine the effect of soft tissues in the implant area on the marginal bone level in the implant area and to define of the critical gingival thickness to minimize marginal bone level (MBL) loss.
Methods: 75 bone level implants (Conelog® Camlog, Switzerland) were inserted in the aesthetic area. Thickening of soft tissues was performed using CTG and XCM. 12 months after the loading with final restoration, the thickness of soft tissues in the implant area was examined with ultrasound USG device (Pirop®, Echoson, Poland), and each implant was subjected to RVG examination, where MBL loss was determined.
Results: A tendency to occur less MBL loss was found when thicker gingiva was present. The higher soft tissue thickness was, the lower MBL loss has occurred. A critical value for tissue thickness was determined as TKT ≤ 2.88.
Conclusions: In case of thin biotype soft tissue augmentation is required when value of tissue thickness in ultrasound measure is less than 2.88 mm.
Keywords: Connective tissue graft; Mucograft®; Thickness keratinized gingiva; Ultrasound measurements; Xenogenic matrix.
Copyright © 2020 Elsevier GmbH. All rights reserved.