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Updated: May 2, 2026

Quantitative Assessment Protocol for Facial Soft Tissue Volumetric Changes with Stereophotogrammetry
Published on: December 9, 2025
Labial soft tissue volume evaluation of different techniques for ridge preservation after tooth extraction: a
David Schneider1, Patrick R Schmidlin, Alexander Philipp
1Clinic of Fixed and Removable Prosthodontics and Dental Material Science, Center of Dental Medicine, University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland.
Objective:
To volumetrically evaluate soft tissue changes of different ridge preservation techniques compared to spontaneous healing 6 months after tooth extraction.
Materials And Methods:
In each of 40 patients, one single-rooted tooth was extracted and four treatment modalities were randomly assigned to the following groups (n = 10 each): A) ß-tricalcium-phosphate-particles with a polylactid coating (ß-TCP), B) demineralized bovine bone mineral with 10% collagen covered with a collagen matrix (DBBM-C/CM), C) DBBM with 10% collagen covered with an autogenous soft tissue punch graft (DBBM-C/PG), D) spontaneous healing (control). Impressions were obtained before extraction and 6 months later, casts were digitized and volumetric changes at the buccal soft tissues were determined. One-way anova was performed and pair-wise Wilcoxon rank sum test with Bonferroni-Holm method was applied for comparison of differences between two groups.
Results:
After 6 months, horizontal contour changes accounted for -1.7 ± 0.7 mm (A), -1.2 ± 0.5 mm (B), -1.2 ± 0.7 mm (C) and -1.8 ± 0.8 mm (D). None of the group comparisons reached statistical significance.
Conclusions:
Six months after tooth extraction all groups revealed a horizontal volume change in the buccal soft tissue contour. Application of DBBM-C/CM or DBBM-C/PG reduced the amount of volume resorption compared to ß-TCP or spontaneous healing without reaching statistically significant difference.
