[Individualized restorative designs and clinical evaluation for dental implants in the anterior esthetic zone with inappropriate conditions].

PURPOSE: To offer individualized restorative strategies for patients receiving dental implants in the anterior esthetic zone but with inappropriate available conditions and evaluate the clinical outcomes. METHODS: Forty-six patients with 58 implants were recruited for the study in accordance with the criteria and received individualized implant prostheses in the anterior esthetic zone. The patients were followed up for 3-24 months, and the clinical outcomes were evaluated by pink and white esthetic scores (PES/WES). RESULTS: The patients were from 18 to 69 years old, and followed up for 12.6 months in average. According to the third month follow-up esthetic scores, for PES, 1.72% of the patients got low scores, 44.83% got medium scores and 53.45% got high scores; For WES, 0% got low scores, 20.69% got medium scores and 79.31% got high scores. No implant failure or peri-implantitis occurred. CONCLUSIONS: Individualized restorative designs for implants in the esthetic zone can effectively improve the appearance of the prostheses which originally have no appropriate available space. Close follow-up and monitoring of the peri-implant soft tissue and proper oral hygiene instructions are important to ensure the conditions of the prostheses.

Adult stem cell-based apexogenesis.

Generally, the dental pulp needs to be removed when it is infected, and root canal therapy (RCT) is usually required in which infected dental pulp is replaced with inorganic materials (paste and gutta percha). This treatment approach ultimately brings about a dead tooth. However, pulp vitality is extremely important to the tooth itself, since it provides nutrition and acts as a biosensor to detect the potential pathogenic stimuli. Despite the reported clinical success rate, RCT-treated teeth are destined to be devitalized, brittle and susceptible to postoperative fracture. Recently, the advances and achievements in the field of stem cell biology and regenerative medicine have inspired novel biological approaches to apexogenesis in young patients suffering from pulpitis or periapical periodontitis. This review mainly focuses on the benchtop and clinical regeneration of root apex mediated by adult stem cells. Moreover, current strategies for infected pulp therapy are also discussed here.