• The Journal of the Korean dental association
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• v.51 no.11
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• pp.604-609
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• 2013

Crown fractures are relatively common trauma to anterior teeth, and should be restored immediately in most cases. For those who suffer from unfortunate traumatic episode, the best treatment option should be minimally invasive approach. In the presence of fractured tooth fragment, reattachment procedure creates positive emotional response in the patient and simplifies the procedure and maintenance of the patient's original tooth anatomy and occlusion. Without fractured tooth fragment, next conservative option could be direct composite restoration which is based on minimal invasion concept. This article proposes simple and very conservative techniques that anyone can do in daily practice.

• The Journal of Korean Academy of Prosthodontics
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• v.61 no.1
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• pp.18-25
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• 2023

We present the case of a 65-year-old man with maxillary and mandibular complete dentures prepared using neutral zone technique after undergoing mandibulotomy due to tonsil cancer 10 years ago. The patient had a short edentulous period; hence, there was minimal absorption of the alveolar ridge and no abnormality in the motor function of the tongue. However, the retromolar pad was located inside the hamular notch, and the posterior alveolar ridge was relatively turned inward. If the artificial teeth would have been aligned conventionally, the functional space of the tongue would have been invaded, which would have moved the tongue posteriorly thereby reducing the stability of the denture. Therefore, applying the concept of the neutral zone can be a good reference point in such cases. The neutral zone was registered using tissue conditioner, and tooth alignment was performed by making a silicone putty index. The biggest advantage of using neutral zone concept is denture stability. In this case, the neutral zone technique was applied to obtain the lingual alignment limit of the posterior teeth to avoid invasion of the tongue space by the left posterior part of the mandible. Particularly, in case of a patient in which denture stability is difficult to obtain due to absorption of the alveolar ridge, it is believed that better results can be obtained using neutral zone technique.