The role of the implant impression in abutment selection: a technical note.

Selecting the abutment at second-stage implant surgery should combine the experience of both the surgeon and the restorative dentist to avoid complications during prosthetic reconstructions. If an inappropriate abutment is selected, the resultant removal of the abutment and replacement of it with a completely different one is both costly and inefficient. The availability of the healing abutment component has eliminated many of these problems. Making an impression at the implant level allows the dentist ample time to study the restorative needs before selecting the final abutment.