Clinical and radiographic evaluation of early loaded narrow diameter implants: 5-years follow-up of a multicentre prospective clinical study

Abstract

Objective: This study was initiated to evaluate the 5-year implant survival rate and marginal bone levels around a 3.0mm implant when replacing a single tooth in the anterior region. Material and Methods: The study was designed as a prospective, single arm, multi-center clinical study. Patients missing 12, 22, 32, 31, 41 or 42 teeth were included and implants of 3.0 mm diameter and different lengths were placed by a one-stage surgery protocol. Definitive cemented crowns were placed 6 to 10 weeks later. Clinical and radiographic measurements were taken at implant installation, loading, and at the 6, 12, 24, 36, 48 and 60-months follow-up visits. Results: 69 patients with 97 implants were included in this study. 4 implants were lost before loading (4.12% failure rate). Implant marginal bone levels did not differ statistically after the 1-year follow-up visit. After 5 years, no bone loss was observed for 50.60% of the implants and only 8.43% of them lost more than 1 mm. Similarly, pocket probing depths and gingival zenith scores did not change significantly. Conclusions: The use of the two-pieces narrow 3.0mm titanium dental implant for the restoration of upper lateral or lower incisors is safe and results in stable marginal bone levels and pocket probing depths after 5 years of function.