Soft Tissue Changes Around Dental Implants

NCT ID: NCT04265768

Last Updated: 2025-06-08

Study Results

Results pending

The study team has not published outcome measurements, participant flow, or safety data for this trial yet. Check back later for updates.

Basic Information

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Recruitment Status

COMPLETED

Clinical Phase

NA

Total Enrollment

18 participants

Study Classification

INTERVENTIONAL

Study Start Date

2021-06-21

Study Completion Date

2025-02-24

Brief Summary

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This study aims to characterize the healing pattern following soft tissue augmentation procedure concomitant to implant placement.

Detailed Description

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This study will characterize, for the first time, the healing pattern of soft tissues around dental implants in case of soft tissue augmentation and in comparison, to normal healing.

An innovative and comprehensive geometric/thermal imaging analysis will be employed that is non-contact and non-invasive to patients and will allow to characterize the healing process in a 2D-3D dimensional and volumetric way.

This approach, combined with LSCI and clinical and radiographic outcomes, will provide new data on the biology and critical phases of soft tissue healing around implants, as well as on the stability and aesthetics of the peri-implant tissues with different grafts.

Patient-reported outcome measurements (PROMs) will also be used to assess the level of pain and discomfort associated with soft tissue augmentation procedures.

Conditions

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Tooth Loss Dental Diseases Wound Heal

Study Design

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Allocation Method

RANDOMIZED

Intervention Model

PARALLEL

The study will includes 3 groups randomised in parallel.
Primary Study Purpose

TREATMENT

Blinding Strategy

SINGLE

Outcome Assessors
Due to the nature of the intervention, both participants and clinicians performing the surgical intervention will be un-blinded.

Conversely, outcome examiners will be blinded to treatment allocation throughout the whole study duration.

Study Groups

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No Soft tissue augmentation surgery

No soft tissue augmentation concomitant to implant placement. Negative control group.

Group Type PLACEBO_COMPARATOR

No soft tissue augmentation

Intervention Type PROCEDURE

During implant placement surgery, no soft tissue augmentation will be performed

Soft tissue augmentation surgery with Fibro-Gide

Soft tissue augmentation concomitant to implant placement with a porcine, volume-stable cross-linked collagen matrix (Fibro-Gide, Geistlich Pharma AG, Wolhusen, Switzerland).

Test group.

Group Type EXPERIMENTAL

Soft tissue augmentation surgery with Fibro-Gide

Intervention Type PROCEDURE

Fibro-Gide will be used to obtain buccal soft tissue augmentation. Fibro-Gide will be trimmed with a scalpel and adjusted in size and thickness to better adapt to the area buccal to the implant. In particular, the graft will be shaped in order to obtain a graft of approximately 2-3 mm of thickness and adequate length. Fibro-Gide will then be sutured to the inner side of the buccal flap, before repositioning the flap and suturing it in a tension-free way.

Soft tissue augmentation surgery with patient's CTG

Soft tissue augmentation concomitant to implant placement with a connective tissue graft (CTG) taken from the patient's palate or retromolar area.

Positive control group.

Group Type ACTIVE_COMPARATOR

Soft tissue augmentation surgery with CTG

Intervention Type PROCEDURE

An epithelial-connective tissue graft of approximately 2-3 mm of thickness and adequate length will be taken from the palate or retromolar region of the patient and de-epithelialized with a scalpel (ideally a thickness of 1.5-2.0mm).

The connective tissue graft (CTG) obtained will then be positioned buccally to the dental implant and sutured to the internal side of the flap so to provide soft tissue bulk at the level of the neck of the implant and simulate a root prominence for the missing tooth.

Interventions

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Soft tissue augmentation surgery with CTG

An epithelial-connective tissue graft of approximately 2-3 mm of thickness and adequate length will be taken from the palate or retromolar region of the patient and de-epithelialized with a scalpel (ideally a thickness of 1.5-2.0mm).

The connective tissue graft (CTG) obtained will then be positioned buccally to the dental implant and sutured to the internal side of the flap so to provide soft tissue bulk at the level of the neck of the implant and simulate a root prominence for the missing tooth.

Intervention Type PROCEDURE

Soft tissue augmentation surgery with Fibro-Gide

Fibro-Gide will be used to obtain buccal soft tissue augmentation. Fibro-Gide will be trimmed with a scalpel and adjusted in size and thickness to better adapt to the area buccal to the implant. In particular, the graft will be shaped in order to obtain a graft of approximately 2-3 mm of thickness and adequate length. Fibro-Gide will then be sutured to the inner side of the buccal flap, before repositioning the flap and suturing it in a tension-free way.

Intervention Type PROCEDURE

No soft tissue augmentation

During implant placement surgery, no soft tissue augmentation will be performed

Intervention Type PROCEDURE

Eligibility Criteria

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Inclusion Criteria

* Age between 20 and 80 years.
* Good medical and psychological health.
* Absence of untreated caries lesions and untreated/uncontrolled periodontal disease. If patients require periodontal treatment (non-surgical and/or surgical), this has to be arranged outside the study protocol and completed at least 30 days prior to the enrolment.
* Need of a single-tooth replacement in the aesthetic (incisor, canine or premolar) region.
* Presence of adequate bone for implant placement without need for significant bone regeneration. In particular, the patients should have a bucco-palatal residual alveolar width of at least 6 mm at the central and crestal aspect of the single tooth gap to ensure complete embedding of an implant by bone (De Bruyckere et al., 2018).
* A residual alveolar height \>8 mm, enough inter-arch space for a crown and a minimum distance of 6 mm from the adjacent teeth.
* The width and height will be confirmed after x-ray examination in Visit 1 (or extra visit). Cases of small apical fenestration (≤ 25% of implant length) after implant placement will not be excluded, but will be treated according to the GBR principle (collagen membrane associated with a deproteinized bovine bone graft) to re-establish the bone contour and without over contouring.
* At least 8 weeks of post-extraction socket healing had occurred in the edentulous site.
* Willingness to sign the informed consent form.

Exclusion Criteria

* Self-reported pregnancy and lactation.
* Any known systemic disease affecting bone metabolism (e.g. Cushing's syndrome, crohn's disease, rheumatoid arthritis, osteoporosis, diabetes type I and uncontrolled diabetes type II), systemic infections or recent surgical procedures within 30 days of study initiation.
* Chronic treatment (i.e., 2 weeks or more) with any medication known to affect oral status (e.g., phenytoin, dihydropyridine, calcium antagonists and cyclosporine) or bone metabolism (e.g. bisphosphonates, hormone replacement therapy, immunosuppressants) within 1 month before baseline visit.
* HIV or viral hepatitis.
* Physical handicaps that would interfere with the ability to perform adequate oral hygiene.
* Self-reported alcoholism or chronic drug abuse.
* Heavy smokers (\>10/cigarettes per day).
* Patients suffering from a known psychological disorder or with limited mental capacity or language skills such that study information could not be understood, informed consent could be obtained or simple instructions could be followed.
* Full-mouth bleeding (BOP) and plaque (PI) scores \>30% or sites with periodontal pocket depth \>5 mm at the completion of the pre-treatment phase.
* Very thin or very thick biotypes that according to the clinician's judgement would either risk to have complications or would not benefit from receiving a graft.
* \<2 mm KT buccally (from the mucogingival junction to the coronal aspect of the crestal soft tissue).
Minimum Eligible Age

20 Years

Maximum Eligible Age

80 Years

Eligible Sex

ALL

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Sponsors

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Geistlich Pharma AG

INDUSTRY

Sponsor Role collaborator

Queen Mary University of London

OTHER

Sponsor Role lead

Responsible Party

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Responsibility Role SPONSOR

Principal Investigators

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Nikos Donos, PhD

Role: PRINCIPAL_INVESTIGATOR

Barts & The London School of Medicine & Dentistry, QMUL

Locations

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Barts and The London Dental Hospital

London, , United Kingdom

Site Status

Centre for Oral Clinical Research (COCR)

London, , United Kingdom

Site Status

Countries

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United Kingdom

Other Identifiers

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IRAS 268553

Identifier Type: -

Identifier Source: org_study_id

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