JCP Digest explores soft-tissue volumetric changes after tooth extraction

The latest issue of the EFP’s research summary JCP Digest describes a randomised controlled clinical trial that assessed the soft-tissue volumetric changes, and the corresponding differences in soft-tissue dimensions, four months after a single-tooth extraction.

The study evaluated three different therapeutic approaches: alveolar-ridge preservation, both with and without immediate implant placement, and spontaneous healing.

Summarised as JCP Digest No. 84, the trial found that in all three groups the buccal soft-tissue profile underwent linear and volumetric changes in the four months after tooth extraction. But no significant differences were observed between the groups.

However, in the spontaneous-healing group a significant increase in soft-tissue thickness was observed, while in the other two groups the soft-tissue thickness remained stable.

The researchers, at the Università Vita-Salute in Milan, Italy, also found that when alveolar-ridge preservation is not applied, an increase in soft-tissue thickness seems to compensate for the more pronounced horizontal bone loss.

The research was summarised for JCP Digest by postgraduate students at the EFP-accredited programme in periodontology at the University of Liège in Belgium.

READ JCP DIGEST