Restoring the Gingival Contour by Means of Provisional Resin Crowns After Single-Implant Treatment

A consecutive group of 55 patients was treated with 63 single-implant restorations. The soft tissue was allowed to heal to either provisional resin crowns (n = 25) that were placed at the time of second-stage surgery, or to healing abutments (n = 38) before final crown insertion. An index that assessed the size of the interproximal mucosa adjacent to the single-implant restorations was used to evaluate the volume of the papillae 2 years after crown insertion. The results indicated that the use of provisional crowns may restore soft tissue contour faster than healing abutments alone, but the papillae adjacent to single-implant restorations presented similar volume in both groups after 2 years in function. Furthermore, the mean marginal bone loss at the implants was 0.9 mm after 1 year, and no differences were observed between the 2 groups. The present data focus on the need for more scientific data to evaluate different clinical procedures for optimizing esthetic results in implant dentistry.