Incidence of open gingival embrasures after mandibular incisor extractions: a clinical photographic evaluation.

INTRODUCTION The purposes of this study were to determine the incidence of open gingival embrasures after a single mandibular incisor extraction and to investigate whether age, sex, interproximal pretreatment and posttreatment contact location, or the type of mandibular incisor were predictors of the incidence and magnitude of open gingival embrasures. METHODS Pretreatment and posttreatment intraoral frontal photos of 51 adults who had 1 mandibular incisor extracted were evaluated to determine the incidence and magnitude of open gingival embrasures. RESULTS The incidence of open gingival embrasures was 68%; the embrasures were moderately noticeable to very noticeable in 52% of those patients. Age, sex, incisor type, and location of interproximal contact before treatment were not predictors of open gingival embrasures after mandibular incisor extractions. An interproximal contact in the incisal third at the end of treatment was associated with the formation of an open gingival embrasure. CONCLUSIONS Open gingival embrasures are a common finding after the extraction of a mandibular incisor, and the magnitude of this embrasure is clinically noticeable.