A Novel Approach to Obtaining Adequate Soft Tissue Coverage with Immediate Implant Placement

Background: One of the problems encountered with the immediate implant placement is insufficient soft tissue that could achieve a tension-free primary closure. In this case report, a simple approach was recently performed to provide sufficient primary closure at the time of immediate implant placement. Patient and intervention: A 38-year-old non-smoking medically fit female patient presented to the Prosthodontics Department, Faculty of Dentistry - Cairo University with a history of endodontic treatment in the maxillary left lateral incisor and repeated post fracture. The condition resulted in insufficient tooth structure to support a post core restoration. Hence, it was decided to replace the tooth with an endosseous implant. Oral examination revealed that the remaining supra-gingival portion of the broken lateral incisor could hinder adequate primary closure at the time of immediate implant placement. Therefore, it was decided to reduce the root to 2mm below gingiva and leave it for 3 weeks to allow for growth of soft tissue in the exposed area, thereby providing adequate soft tissue for primary closure after implant placement. Conclusion: This approach provides a tension-free primary closure of the socket after immediate implant placement. This protects the healing site from the oral environment. Keywords: Immediate implant placement, soft tissue coverage, case report