Karachi: The dimension of the soft tissue attachment to the implant/abutment surface has always been considered important for the maintenance of peri-implant health and for the overall aesthetics of the final restoration.
Referring to soft tissue maintenance in implant surgeries, Dr Munis Mukhtar, Director Academy of Orofacial Aesthetics & Consultant Implantologist at Aesthetics & Dental Implantology Center expressed his views on valuable aspects. He explained that dentists should cater such details while working on implant cases.
He was speaking at live session organized by Dental News Pakistan. The moderator for the event was Dr Muattar Hanif.
Dr Munis shared that the clinical cases should be thoroughly inspected before moving towards final diagnosis. He highlighted that the amount of soft tissues can ascertain the future of the implant. He explained in detail regarding the factors that can assure long term prognosis of implant.
Dr Munis told that soft tissues has been main ingredient to create peri-implant seal. “This seal can function to maintain homeostasis of the internal environment in response to challenges from external environment,” Munis added.
Dr Munis shared that it has been highly recommended that abundance of soft tissue must be present as it will guarantee more resistance. Munis said, “This tissues are less resistance to inflammation because if we have thicker soft tissue so ideally we should have vertical soft tissue, horizontal soft tissue and the band of attached tissue all around our implants. So, it is predictable to augment thickness rather than covering the recession that I considered as complication management a two millimeter attached gingiva is necessary on both buccal and lingual side if we need vertical, horizontal and attached keratinized tissue then the defect could be of different types.”
Connective tissue graft is still considered as gold standard in various soft tissue grafting procedures around implants however different other techniques and materials have certain scientific backing too, Dr Munis.
Dr Mukhtar also shared common types of soft tissue defects and shared beneficial insights regarding them. He then shared his own case mentioning about the soft tissues complications he had to face during his clinical practice.
Munis told that attached keratinized gingiva and vertical soft tissues are important in maintaining crestal bone stability. He informed that atleast 2 mm of attached tissue should be present on the buccal and lingual aspects of implants.
Dr Munis concluded that soft tissues play an integral role in the long term stability of crestal bone around the implant.
He also thanked the organizers for arranging such great initiative.
The live session can be watched again here.
Dr Muattar Hanif
The author is Editor at Dental News Pakistan and can be reached at newsdesk@medicalnewsgroup.com.pk
