ConclusionsĪlthough this study was a limited preoperative study, the vertical mucosal thickness at the edentulous ridge differed between the maxillary and mandibular regions. In the mandible, more than half of the sites showed a mucosal thickness of 2 mm or less. Sites were further classified into two groups based on whether the mucosal thickness was greater than 2 mm.
In both the maxilla and the mandible, the mucosa was the thickest in the anterior region, followed by the premolar and molar regions. The mucosal thickness was 3.0☑.3 mm in the maxilla, which was significantly greater than the mucosal thickness of 2.0☑.0 mm in the mandible ( p<0.001).
Cone-beam computed tomography (CBCT) scans were obtained by placing a diagnostic template with a radiopaque crown indicator on the ridge to determine the mucosal thickness at the crest of the alveolar ridge. Our study included 125 partially edentulous patients having a total of 296 implant sites. The purpose of the study was to conduct a survey of the frequency distribution of variations in mucosal thickness at the different sites of the edentulous alveolar ridge and to compare them according to gender. However, the variations in mucosal thickness at the different edentulous sites have been sparsely documented. The vertical thickness of the peri-implant mucosa is associated with the amount of post treatment marginal bone loss.
