Implants in the esthetic zone – immediate or delayed approaches?

It has been described in scientific literature that tooth extraction is accompanied by substantial ridge contractions. In particular in the horizontal dimension, ridge reductions up to 50% of the original alveolar socket are witnessed due to tissue atrophy. As dental implants are an important treatment option in particular in the esthetic zone, these ridge reductions cannot be accepted form an esthetic and also functional perspective. Therefore clinicians and researchers have evolved treatment concepts to reduce these tissue atrophies following tooth extraction. One approach can be to immediately place a dental implant and to graft the remaining extraction socket with xenogenous bone substitutes. Also the soft tissue is supported either by adjunctive grafting measures and/or immediate provisional crowns. In cases where immediate implant placement is not possible, ridge preservation techniques are advocated and can reduce tissue atrophy following tooth extraction. The goal of this presentation is to demonstrate a clinical concept for restoring failing teeth in the esthetic zone.