Peri‐implant tissues are those that occur around osseointegrated dental implants. They are divided into soft and hard tissue compartments. The soft tissue compartment is denoted “peri‐implant mucosa” and is formed during the wound healing process that follows implant/abutment placement. The hard tissue compartment forms a contact relationship to the implant surface to secure implant stability. Due to their histologic and anatomic features, peri‐implant tissues carry out two basic functions: the mucosa protects the underlining bone, while the bone supports the implant. Indeed, the destruction of peri‐implant tissues can jeopardize the implant success and survival, and the understanding of the characteristics of healthy peri‐implant tissues allows the recognition of disease. Thus, the aim of the present review was to define clinical and histologic characteristics of peri‐implant tissues in health and describe the mucosa–implant interface.

A search in MEDLINE‐PubMed was used to retrieve the evidence to support the present review. The following key words were used for the literature search: dental implants (Mesh) AND biological width OR mucosa OR soft tissue OR attachment OR keratinized mucosa OR peri‐implant mucosa OR probing depth OR microbiota OR collagen fibers OR epithelium OR adhesion OR seal OR bone OR osseointegration AND humans OR animals. The two main reasons for exclusion of studies were: 1) not published in English, and 2) lack of detailed clinical, histologic, or microbiologic description of healthy peri‐implant tissues.