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On the relationship between gingival biotypes and supracrestal gingival height, crown form and papilla height
Kai R Fischer1, Eva Grill, Yvonne Jockel-Schneider
1Department of Periodontology, Julius-Maximilians-University, Würzburg, Germany.
Objectives:
To determine the association between gingival biotypes and supracrestal gingival height (primary aim) and its relation to crown shape and papilla height (secondary aim).
Materials And Methods:
Eighty adult subjects were evaluated in this study. Based on the transparency of a periodontal probe through the buccal gingival margin, 38 subjects comprised the thin biotype group and 42 subjects comprised the thick biotype group, respectively. Three different parameters were clinically assessed: supracrestal gingival height (SGH) by bone sounding, crown width/crown length ratio and papilla height.
Results:
No statistical difference (P > 0.05) was detected neither for the correlation between different biotypes (thick/thin) and SGH nor for the association of biotypes and crown width/crown length ratio. Papilla height was only significantly increased (P ≤ 0.05) in the area of teeth no. 21/22 for the thin periodontal biotype. Intra-examiner deviation was found to be very low for all clinical parameters (percentile agreement > 95%).
Conclusions:
Within the limits of this study, we found that in young Caucasians (i) soft tissue dimensions seem to be similar between biotypes (ii) and the traditional hypothesis that a thick gingiva merges with broad-short crown shape and flat papillae and a thin gingiva with a narrow-long crown shape and high scalloping, may be questionable.
