Design of customized soft tissue substitutes for anterior single‐tooth and posterior double‐tooth defects: An in vitro study

Objective: This study aims to validate the standardized procedure for designing soft tissue substitutes (STS) adapted to optimally fit single-tooth defects in the anterior jaws and double-tooth defects in the posterior jaw and to compare mathematically modeled average shapes. Materials and Methods: Casts from 35 patients with 17 single-tooth defects in anterior region and 21 double-tooth defects in posterior region were scanned. STS were designed and sectioned in 3D slices meshes. Thickness values were documented respecting mesial-distal and buccal-lingual orientations. Graphs were embedded into images, and hierarchical clustering was applied to group STS according to shape and thickness. Results: STS clustered into two groups per defect type. For anterior single defects, STS ( n = 4) were either a small and thin oval: 7