Methods: Fifty patients (mean age: 31.3 years; range:18-56 years. Gender:46.4 females/ 53.6 male) having implant-supported single crowns replacing teeth absent due to trauma or aplasia in the anterior maxilla were included. The patients were treated at the Implant Clinic,University of Bergen (n=15) or at the Haukeland University Hospital, Bergen (n=35). Evaluation was carried out one year after placement of the crown by the use of the Pink Esthetic Score (PES) and the Implant Crown Aesthetics Index (ICAI). The patients rated their satisfaction of crown and adjacent soft tissue.
Results: The median sum score for PES was 8 (range: 3-13). For the ICAI the median sum score was 9 (range: 2-28). When the ICAI was dichotomised with the first 5 items related to the crown and the following 4 items related to the adjacent mucosa, the mucosa score had a median value of 6, while the crown score had a median value of 3. Regarding the form and colour of the crown, 87.5% and 83.3% of the patients were satisfied while 70.8% were satisfied with the adjacent mucosa. A significant bivariate correlation was found between the PES and the ICAI (rs -0.71, p < 0.01). The PES also correlated with the patient satisfaction related to the adjacent mucosa (rs -0.30, p < 0.05). The ICAI correlated with the patient satisfaction related to colour of the crown (rs 0.35, p < 0.05), however, the mucosa score of the ICAI also correlated to the sum of the questions related to the form and colour of the tooth (rs 0.29, p < 0.05).
Conclusion: All though most patients were satisfied, the objective evaluation shows that the peri-implant mucosa is the main challenge for the aesthetics outcome of single implants.