Abstract
BACKGROUND: Maintaining soft tissue contour in immediate dental implant is a challenging task. A combination of immediate implant therapy with customized healing abutment would be effective in simulating ideal soft tissue contour. METHODOLOGY: Patients with unrestorable teeth were randomly allocated into two groups, that is, immediate implants with customized healing abutment in study group and stock healing abutment in control group. At the end of the third month, healing abutments were removed, soft tissue evaluation was done by modified plaque index (MPI), modified sulcular bleeding index (MSBI), midfacial width of keratinized tissue and functional implant prosthodontic score (FIPS), and crestal bone levels at postoperative intervals of baseline, three months, and nine months. RESULTS: The mean difference between the test group and control group in MPI was -0.14. The mean value of FIPS was slightly higher in the test group than in the control group with a mean difference of 0.71. The mean ± SD values of MSBI scores in the test group at baseline, three months, and nine months were 0.00 ± 0.00, 0.43 ± 0.535, and 0.29 ± 0.488, respectively, and in the control group were 0.00 ± 0.00, 0.57 ± 0.53, and 0.43 ± 0.53, respectively. Midfacial widths of keratinized tissue in the test group was maintained constantly at 3.8 mm from baseline, three months, and nine months. On evaluating mesial and distal crestal bone loss, the mean of -0.2 and -0.34 and P values 0.05 and 0.01 were seen. CONCLUSION: Immediate implants with a customized healing abutment group had a positive effect on maintaining peri-implant health.