How Important Is Biotype?

As an oral surgeon, I wanted to share with you a question I often get asked, “How important is biotype?” Well, I know that if you’re asking that question that you’ve had already a pretty detailed discussion with your general dentist or periodontist. Biotype is simply the gum tissue that helps support the tooth and the health of the bone around the tooth and it can be either thin, medium, or thick. This is important because the thickness of that gum tissue then can affect its ability to respond to stress.

A thin tissue, for instance, can be easily damaged, injured or affected by simple tooth brushing. A medium biotype or medium thickness of that gum tissue is better and then the thicker version, obviously, that is the toughest of them all. So for our situations, a lot of times, when we start thinking about biotype or changing your biotype in a specific area it’s because we’re concerned that that gum tissue isn’t strong enough to withstand the stressors or stress that’s going to be placed upon it when you get to that final solution. So if we’re talking to you about biotypes, it’s not because we want to change your biotype at all, we just want to change the biotype in that one area so that it can be better suited for what we’re asking it to do.