Opening General Session: When Bad Things Happen to Good Tissue

Program Track: Periodontal Plastic and Soft Tissue Surgery

The ultimate goals for treating recession problems are to both restore the affected teeth or dental implants back to health while providing an ideal appearance wherever and whenever possible. The idea of the “picture perfect” smile is often reinforced by those who we see on television, in the movies, and print media. This means that the expectation is complete or near complete coverage of the exposed root or dental implant surface at the completion of our treatment. But what is one to do when things are not working out as planned? Each of our speakers comes with a breadth of knowledge for soft tissue correction and they will share with us not only the nuances associated with their techniques but also how they go about managing things when treatment has gone awry. The audience will leave this session with a better understanding of the nuances for successful soft tissue outcomes along with what it takes to resurrect failing treatment efforts.

Educational Objectives:

• Examine the need for keratinized and attached mucosa following soft tissue grafting procedures around dental implants.
• Discuss the benefits to a microsurgical approach in managing soft tissue surgical complications.
• Consider how to manage secondary intention healing as a complication to soft tissue augmentations.