Labial Bone Thickness in Area of Anterior Maxillary Implants Associated with Crestal Labial Soft Tissue Thickness
Soft tissue problems (ie, gingival recessions) are common in implantology and are often associated with thin soft tissue biotypes or buccally placed implants. Goaslind described 2 types of biotypes commonly found in the natural dentition: thick and thin. It has been suggested that thicker soft tissue biotypes are associated with less tissue recession, higher crestal bone levels, and better aesthetics. A thin tissue biotype has been shown to be more prone to tissue recession. Gingival recession is always associated with alveolar bone dehiscences. Furthermore, there is evidence that thick soft tissue may be protective against crestal bone loss (ie, tissue thickness of ,2.5 mm resulted in crestal bone loss of 1.45 mm vs. thicker tissues had 0.26 mm). This protective effect occurred, despite the supracrestal position of the implant-abutment interface.

A Decision Tree for Soft Tissue Grafting
The decision tree proposed serves as a guide for clinicians to select the most appropriate and predictable soft tissue grafting procedure to minimize unnecessary mistakes while providing the ultimate desired treatment outcome.

Similarities Between an Acellular Alloderm and a Palatal Graft for Tissue Augmentation
Predictable tissue regeneration presents a considerable challenge in the surgical treatment of gingival tissue defects. Soft-tissue augmentation procedures to increase the existing or create a new zone of attached keratinized gingival tissue have classically been performed using the patient's own masticatory mucosa and, more recently, using an acellular dermal allograft as the donor material. This article presents a clinical case whereby an acellular dermal allograft was placed on the buccal surface…

The "Robin Hood" Approach to Tissue Engineering
Autogenous tissue is still a gold standard for augmentation procedures. There are great sources of patient’s own tissue, often in adjacent areas, that can be utilized. The soft tissue can be moved, flipped, rolled, pediculated - in order to take from the rich sites and give to the poor ones. A novel approach for the wound closure after ridge augmentation and/or implant placement in lateral maxilla will be presented.

Dental Sleep Medicine in Everyday Practice - Endothelial Dysfunction - Part 1 of 2
Dr. Michael Gelb elaborates on the nuances of treating sleep disorders in the dental practice. Utilizing the EndoPat-2000 to measure the health or dysfunction of the endothelium, Dr. Gelb ascertains an important risk factor in cardiovascular disease.

Autogenous Soft Tissue Ridge Augmentation
Harvesting, placement and stabilization of autogenous connective tissue grafts.

A Review of Clinical Applications for Soft Tissue Allografts & Autografts: Solutions for Teeth, Implants, and Dentures
The presentation focuses on the clinical applications for acellular dermal graft (ADG) materials. ADGs have been commonly presented and discussed to provide solutions for treating gingival recession. Compared to autogenous grafts, they have the advantage of minimizing pain, discomfort, and surgery time for patients by avoiding an intraoral donor site such as the palate. In addition to treating gingival recession, ADGs also have uses in bone grafting surgeries such as socket grafting and ridge augmentations (GBR) when they are utilized as a barrier membrane. Finally, ADGs can be combined with bone grafting materials to aid in the augmentation of edentulous ridges to aid denture support. While this last application is less common, it's use is worthy of discussion.

Microsurgical Soft Tissue Reconstruction for Teeth & Implants - Part 2 of 2
Esthetics plays a key role in a modern society and the average dental health of the population is improving every day. In such environment, the demands of dental treatments are different and dentists should approach their patients in a different way: they should be prepared to implement different and modern techniques around teeth and implants. Soft tissue grafting techniques provide the dentist with an armamentarium that makes possible to prevent and solve many problems and complications around teeth and implants, making more predictable the treatments results. This presentation is focused in the importance of soft tissue grafting techniques around teeth and implants and how to do it in a predictable, modern and a minimally invasive way. We present many different techniques illustrated with clinical cases.

Esthetic Tissue Reconstruction Around Implants - Part 2 of 2
Esthetics in implant-supported restorations is an important clinical objective in contemporary dentistry. Understanding the biological behavior of hard and soft tissues following tooth extraction is the first step to anticipate the physiological tissue remodeling and its consequences. Our objective in these 2 sequential lectures was to provide straightforward decision trees related to several clinical scenarios observed in routine clinical practice. The 3 fundamental pillars for peri-implant excellence are: restorative-driven implant position, hard and soft tissue reconstruction using different biomaterials and grafts, and prosthetic management. Using this philosophical approach seems to provide esthetic and stable results over time irrespective of the initial clinical condition.