Black triangle dilemma and its management in esthetic dentistry

In recent years, clinician and dentist's esthetic demand in dentistry have increased rapidly, driven by an enhanced awareness of beauty and esthetics. The ultimate goal in modern restorative dentistry is to achieve “white” and “pink” esthetics in esthetically important zones. “White esthetics” is the natural dentition or the restoration of dental hard tissues with suitable materials. “Pink esthetics” refers to the surrounding soft-tissues, which includes the interdental papilla and gingiva that can enhance or diminish the esthetic result. Reconstruction of the lost interdental papilla is one of the most challenging and least predictable problems. Restoration and maintenance of these tissues with adequate surgical and prosthetic techniques are a real challenge in modern esthetic dentistry. Treatment of marginal tissue recession, excessive gingival display, deficient ridges, ridge collapse, and esthetic defects around teeth and implants are some of the esthetic problems associated with the interdental papilla that have to be corrected in todays scenario which has been discussed in this review.