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Figure 2a: Clinical image of an Inclusive Custom Abutment with delivery jig
Figure 2b: Clinical image of a custom abutment, freshly seated, demonstrating
proper soft tissue support
Custom Abutments or
Stock Abutments
The clinical benefits of patient-specific
implant abutments have been well
documented in the dental literature. A
prefabricated “stock” abutment lacks
the flexibility in form to address the
unique challenges, individual complexities,
and esthetic demands of a given
case. In the majority of implant cases,
the patient is best served by an abutment
specifically tailored to the natural
emergence profile of the tooth being
replaced, the morphology of adjacent
and opposing dentition, the presence
of defects, and proper support of the
eventual restoration, among other factors.
2 To provide optimal function and
esthetics, stock abutments must often
be modified by the lab to establish
suitable height, margins, and path of
insertion, which can vary, depending
on the location and angulation of implant
placement. Not only does this
modification process provide a less
than ideal emergence profile, but the
cost is often as much or more than the
cost of a custom abutment.
through proper support and management
of the soft tissue with a properly
placed margin, which facilitates
cement removal during delivery of the
final restoration (Fig. 3).
Digital Custom Abutments or
UCLA Abutments
Since its introduction in 1987, the
universal clearance-limited abutment
(UCLA) has enabled technicians to
create the wax-up of a custom abutment
by hand, allowing them to design
abutments that adapt to conditions
of restricted occlusal and interproximal
clearance. While suitable in most
clinical situations, the UCLA process
can be tedious, time-consuming, and
less precise 3 for both the clinician and
laboratory. Given the high cost of noble
metals, and the intensive laboratory
procedures required to fabricate
the final solution, an overwhelming
number of clinicians are switching
from UCLA abutments to digital custom
abutments (Fig. 4).
Digital Inclusive Custom
Abutments or Other Digital
Custom Abutments
With a greater number of clinicians
choosing the esthetics, function, and
Glidewell provides an acrylic jig with
each Inclusive Custom Abutment to
help ensure swift, accurate seating,
thereby minimizing chairtime and patient
discomfort (Figs. 2a, 2b). Once
delivered, these patient-specific abutments
promote peri-implant health
Figure 3: Illustration depicting the subgingival location of the cement junction found on a typical stock abutment,
in comparison to the tissue-level cement junction found on an Inclusive Custom Abutment
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