Digital protocol for creating a virtual gingiva adjacent to teeth with subgingival dental preparations

Abstract

Purpose: This article describes a digital technique used to record gingival emergence profiles modeled for the prosthetic restoration of teeth prepared using biologically oriented preparation technique (BOPT).
Materials and methods: The description of the technique of intraoral recording, manipulation of digital files, and chairside protocol of prosthetic restorations is developed in the present manuscript on two an- terior teeth treated with vertical and subgingival dental preparations for restoration with ceramic crowns. The manipulation of the digital files registered with an intraoral scanner with software that allows its alignment (best-fit) and the performance boolean of operation manages to create a virtual gingival emer- gency like the one it presents when it is adapted on the cervical part of the interim prosthesis.
Conclusions: The technique allows the dentist and laboratory technician to obtain a digital reproduction of the subgingival soft tissues around the prosthetic crown, unaffected by the collapse of the gingival sulcus when the provisional crown is removed, as well as an exact copy of the provisional restoration, making it possible to fabricate a definitive prosthesis that ensures precise anatomy, and so good compat- ibility with periodontal tissues.