Patients are looking for natural looking restorations in a frame of healthy surrounding soft tissues. Many times the very same patients present with tissue deficiency and excess that can compromise the esthetic outcome and pose a great challenge for the treating clinician.

This course is designed to provide participants with the scientific background and surgical techniques to attain success from a soft tissue perspective. It will address step-by-step esthetic periodontal surgery techniques, their indications and contraindications as well as management of complications. Diagnosis, treatment planning and when a referral is indicated will be emphasized. Participants will learn how to manage soft tissues around teeth and implants and will be able to provide their patients with more esthetic and predictable outcomes.

Topics to be covered:

• Smile design and gingival harmony
• Diagnosis and treatment planning
• Treatment for the excessive gingival display (“gummy smile”)
• Esthetic crown lengthening
• Root coverage procedures
• Enamel matrix proteins with coronally repositioned flaps for root coverage
• Soft tissue allografts – when are they indicated?
• Surgical lip repositioning
• Soft tissue surgery instruments
• Flap design and suturing techniques

• Complication management

Hands-On Workshop

• Suturing techniques
• Flap design
• Free gingival grafts to increase the zone of attached gingivae
• Connective tissue grafting for root coverage
• Coronally repositioned flaps
• Soft tissue allografts and enamel matrix proteins in soft tissue procedures