Gingiva Blanches Around Implant-Abutment Junction: Will This Resolve?

Dr. R. asks:

When I torque down the abutment into the dental implant, sometimes the gingiva blanches around the junction of the implant platform and the abutment margin on the buccal. My understanding is that if the blanching clears up within 5 minutes, everything is okay. I recently seated a five unit bride. When I torqued down the abutments, the gingiva blanched and became thinned out and very tight at the junction of the abutment and the dental implant platform on two of the implants. Two weeks later, the gingival still looks blanched. Should I have thinned out the gingiva on the buccal? Will this resolve by itself? Is this going to cause a dehiscence?

4 Comments on Gingiva Blanches Around Implant-Abutment Junction: Will This Resolve?

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Alejandro Berg
6/19/2007
Maybe you should try the Hebel technique, a little anesthesia, and witha small blade you make small incitions in the palatal or lingual depending on the area, that will allow an easy seating of the abutments and no blanching beyond of the anesthesia. It is really easy and very effective. I dont like to make predictions on gingiva matters but a a very tight gingiva and prolonged blanching usually get to gingiva loss. best of luck
Gordon Fraser
6/22/2007
Gingival Blanching. Using a laser or electosurge is a great way to create a trough around the implant and dissapate any blanching. Blanching means there is pressure on the gingival tissue and will cause remodeling and utimately lead to recession or attachment loss. Gordon
CC
5/7/2009
What if the gingival blanch is around an anterior tooth? I just restored a screw-retained implant #9 and the surgeon placed the implant extremely subgingival(about 4 mm sub-G). When I seated the PFM, there was quite a bit of blanching on buccal. Should I be worried? What can I do to prevent gingival recession in the future?
Richard Hughes DDS, FAAID
5/8/2009
To Dr. CC, You can incise the gingiva with 4 small incisions to release the tension on the fibers, providing your in attached gingiva. Make the incisions 90 degrees to each other. Also take a flame diamond bur in the handpiece, but do not step on the foot peddel, just follow the contour around th implant to remove any gingival fibers. I have been doing this for 17 yrs. without any recession and it works great.

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