[Implants in contact with tissues other than bone. Is there room for a potential paradigm shift?]

Modern dental implantology is now 30 year old. During this period of time, concepts have evolved and triggered several paradigm shifts. The aim of the present paper is to present a case treated with an innovative unconventional protocol. The latter is aimed to avoid invasive surgery when edentulism is caused by an impacted tooth.

The implant has been placed through the impacted canine and led, in addition to the classical implant-bone interface, to several other types of implant-tissue interface.

Healing was uneventful; at the 1-year control, the implant was clinically integrated, the soft tissues around the final crown were satisfactory and the radiographic examination did not call any specific observation.

Before endorsing this protocol in routine application, inclusion/exclusion criteria must be asserted and additional clinical cases with longer follow-up are warranted. Nonetheless, this unconventional protocol opens intriguing possibilities; it also suggests that there is still room to further revisit some of the leading concepts in dental implantology.