BONE SOUNDING

Bone sounding or transmucosal sounding (TS) is a measurement that is used to determine the height of the entire soft tissue cuff at various groups of teeth and implants. The dimensions of the peri‐implant mucosa and the gingiva at adjacent tooth sites was studied by clinical measurements performed mainly in partially edentulous subjects who had been treated with implant‐supported single‐crown restorations. In such studies the brand of the periodontal probe used for the assessments was identified; PD as well as TS measurements were used to describe some features of the soft tissue.

Results from such studies demonstrated that the PD was greater at proximal than at facial/buccal surfaces at both tooth and implant sites and greater at implant than at tooth sites. This shows that the soft tissue cuff around implants exhibits less resistance to probing than the gingiva at adjacent teeth. There are reasons to suggest that the lack of root cementum on the implant surface as well as the difference in the orientation of the collagen fibers in the two types of soft tissue may be associated with the variation observed in the “resistance to probing.”

The TS measurements disclosed that the peri‐implant mucosa was in most cases 1.0 to 1.5 mm higher than the corresponding gingiva at both buccal/facial and proximal sites. It was further demonstrated that patients with a “flat‐thick” periodontal phenotype exhibited greater peri‐implant mucosa dimensions than subjects that belonged to the “scalloped‐thin” biotype. In addition, the height of the papilla between an implant‐supported restoration and a natural tooth was reported to be ≤5 mm and related to the connective tissue adhesion level at the adjacent approximal tooth surfaces. The corresponding dimension between two adjacent implant restorations averaged 3 mm and apparently was dependent on the outline of the crest of the supporting bone.