Open contact

Image:Open contact.jpg protocol incorporating the use of dental floss.]]

An open contact is a term used in dentistry to describe the space between adjacent teeth when the teeth are neither touching nor a sufficient distance from each other to potentially allow the space to naturally remain free of debris.

Open contacts can exist naturally, such as when teeth erupt into a nonideal occlusion or when they shift as a result of tooth loss. They are also frequently produced as a result of inadequately contoured dental restorations.[http://www.bethesda.med.navy.mil/careers/postgraduate_dental_school/prosthodontics_residency/literature/Section_051_Restorative%20Contours.doc Section 51 - Restorative Contours] {{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091221185805/http://www.bethesda.med.navy.mil/careers/postgraduate_dental_school/prosthodontics_residency/literature/Section_051_Restorative%20Contours.doc |date=December 21, 2009 }}

An open contact may lead to a phenomenon termed food packing/food impaction, which can be a cause of pain.{{cite book|author=Scully C|title=Oral and maxillofacial medicine : the basis of diagnosis and treatment|year=2013|publisher=Churchill Livingstone/Elsevier|location=Edinburgh|isbn=978-0-7020-4948-4|edition=3rd|pages=125–135|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=U3WyAFrXVfIC&q=oral+and+maxillofacial+medicine}}