soft tissue: their importance and management in implantology

initially, achievement of a stable, direct bone-to-implant contact was the main objective in implantology, as well as the need for bone grafting procedures and their respective donor areas, problems on bone quantity and quality, etc.

however, in recent years, an increasing esthetic demand and the search for more natural looking prosthetic materials drove our attention to the treatment of soft tissue imperfections, especially at the emergence profile area.

Questions such as the presence of keratinized gingival tissue around implants, papillae formation through surgery, and the soft tissue complications after implant placement created a new and interesting scenario.

When a natural tooth presents without an adequate band of keratinized tissue and a gingival recession is evident, the clinician needs to know why, when, and how to performance the best surgical technique for this situation.

On the other hand, the same above considerations are very important because an injured soft tissue around a fixture already in function has a poorer prognosis.

For this, it is strongly recommended to obtain an adequate band of keratinized gingiva before implant insertion or during the second surgical stage.