Esthetic Rehabilitation of Maxillary Anterior Teeth, Including an Immediate Provisionalization with an Implant-Supported Fixed Dental Prosthesis

Abstract

This report describes the case of a patient who required rehabilitation of their maxillary anterior teeth following a traumatic injury through a physical altercation. The decision was made to extract the maxillary central incisors and maxillary right lateral incisor, perform immediate implantation on the maxillary right lateral incisor and left central incisor areas, and place a three-unit immediate provisional restoration. Predesigned virtual teeth enabled efficient fabrication of the immediate provisional restoration following the implant placement. After a sufficient healing period with periodic check-ups, final impressions were made using a digital approach, with meticulous care taken to preserve the gingival architecture around the sites of rehabilitation. Thus, the custom abutments and definitive restoration were placed without eliciting an uncomfortable feeling in the patient. Both esthetic and functional outcomes were satisfactory. Reduced soft tissue volume around the implant restoration was observed, primarily within the two months post-extraction/implantation, based on superimposition of the serial scan data. Soft tissue volume changes in the present case suggest the need for controlled clinical studies of three-dimensional changes of gingival contours after extraction and/or implantation.