Optimising esthetics in second stage dental implant surgery: Periodontist's ingenuity

Morphology of the peri-implant soft tissue adjoining the implant components plays a pivotal role in displaying the implant esthetics. Creating an implant restoration that cannot be distinguished from the rest of the natural dentition is the ultimate goal. Second stage surgery is often overlooked and is considered non essential phase but actually could determine the health of the peri-implant tissue .This phase gives an excellent opportunity to preserve, reconstruct and even maneuver the soft tissue to optimize the soft tissue profile around the implant components. The article aims at enumerating the various modalities available to contour the soft tissue profile around implants and thus help the practioners in optimizing esthetics during second stage surgery.