Cervical contouring concepts: enhancing the dentogingival complex

The importance of the mucogingival complex in any restorative procedure has long been recognized, and various surgical and nonsurgical procedures have been developed to restore the compromised gingiva to its original health. The learning objective of this article is to review nonsurgical restorative techniques to manipulate the soft tissue surrounding the cervical aspect of the restored tooth into a more favorable contour. The techniques presented are applicable to direct and indirect restorations. Six case reports are used to illustrate the various clinical procedures. The techniques include: Supragingival direct restorative techniques, such as recontouring intact dentition; and intracrevicular indirect techniques, such as recapturing the soft tissue of deficient crown restorations, re-engineering recessed injured tissue, re-creation of hyperplastic injured tissue, re-engineering hyperplastic recessed posttrauma tissue, and re-engineering the periprosthetic envelope.