The interdental gingiva, a visible guide for placement of mini-implants.

OBJECTIVES: To determine whether the tip of the interdental gingiva can serve as a visible guide for placement of mini-implants.

SETTING AND SAMPLE POPULATION: Computer tomography (CT) images from 15 males and 15 females (mean age 27 years, range: 23-35 years) were used to evaluate the distance from the tip of the interdental gingiva to the alveolar crest from the central incisor to the 1st molar. The distance from a reference point to the tip of interdental gingiva was recorded from study models using a caliper. The distance between the reference point and the alveolar crest was recorded using CT and added to the model recordings thus providing the distance from the tip of interdental gingiva to the alveolar crest for the various interdental sites. Two-way anova and Student-Newman-Keuls test for multiple comparisons were used for the statistical analysis.

RESULTS: There was no significant difference in the distance from the tip of interdental gingiva to the alveolar crest between maxilla and mandible. The distance between the tip of interdental gingiva and the alveolar crest at the central/lateral incisors was the shortest compared with that of other sites. There was also a statistically significant difference between the male and female groups except for the maxillary 2nd premolar/1st molar interradicular site.

CONCLUSION: The tip of interdental gingiva appears a reasonable visual guide for the placement of mini-implants for orthodontic anchorage.