As the public becomes concerned with looking younger and healthy, aesthetic considerations will become more relevant to dental treatment planning. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relationship between interdental papilla existence and the distance from contact point to interdental alveolar crest in the maxillary anterior dentition of Korean.

Fifty-nine Korean adult consist of adults. 34 males and 25 females participated in the study. Papilla Index(PI) was recorded. The distance between contact point and interdental alveolar crest was measured by sounding with Williams probe. Measurement were carried out in 257 maxillary anterior interproximal area.

The results showed that mean PI was 1.95 and mean distance between contact point and interdental alveolar crest was 5.07mm. The correlation between the papilla index and distance was negative and statistically significant(r=-0.819; p=0.000).

A high negative correlation existed between PI and distance from contact point to alveolar crest. When the distance between contact point and alveolar crest was 4mm, the papilla got lost on a half of all cases. When the distance was 5mm, the papilla was present almost 11%. When the distance was 6mm, the papilla was present 4%. When the distance was 7mm or more, the papilla was lost in all cases.