There are a lot of questions on the cerecdoctors.com discussion boards and in lectures about using the Gingiva Mask and whether we should use it or not for the implant restoration proposal. Let's take a closer look at when you want to use it and when you do not.  

When restoring implants with CEREC we have the option to use the Gingiva Mask. I am not talking about using the Gingiva Mask to design, which I always use. I am talking about using the Gingival Mask for the initial proposal of the restoration. The stage of the software where you can opt out of using the Gingiva Mask is during the step when you designate the ScanBody head. 

When this is used, you will see the gingiva appear for you to draw your baseline on. 

Now you would think this is a good thing. The problem that occurs is the initial proposal is always pinched near the TiBase which requires more design time.  

Now if you don’t use the Gingiva Mask for our proposal you get a much nicer emergence profile right from the start. First you just click off the Use Gingiva Mask in the Click ScanBody Head step. 

You then will not have the gingiva to draw your baseline on. This is okay, you will have a base line drawn in free space over the TiBase. You can widen it if you so desire to give a better emergence. In this case it was not changed to show the difference without more input from the clinician. 

From here you can then turn on the Gingiva Mask catalog to see if you like the emergence profile and can change it more if needed. The amount of design time will be reduced since there is not the constriction towards the TiBase and there will not be any overhangs or folds in the proposal. 

This can be even more severe than is shown in the above example. Also if your TiBase is above where your base line is drawn on the gingiva you will get an overhang that is a pain to get rid of. 

The fold over hang that is present is hard to get rid of but can easily get taken care of by not using the Gingiva Mask for the proposal. 

After you have your proposal you can still bring up the Gingiva Mask catalog to check your emergence profile and embrasure and then design accordingly.

You can see more on this topic at https://www.cerecdoctors.com/discussion-boards/view/id/36156