Bone Preservation using implants with different geometry placed into extraction sockets
M. Sanz et al.
This study from Clinical Oral Implants Research in 2010 looks at 2 very important factors in regards to immediate implants.
- Does it matter which shape implant (parallel wall vs. tapered) is used in the immediate implant case?
- Is bone preserved when placing immediate implants?
- It has been hypothesized that the immediate placement of implants will act as a tooth and preserve bone.
The study was conducted by atraumatically extracting maxillary anterior teeth and then in a randomized way, place either a parallel walled or tapered implant into the extraction socket. The researchers then measured the gap, on both the palatal and facial, bone height, buccal plate thickness etc.
Their findings were interesting:
- The shape of the implant didn’t matter with regards to immediate implant viability and success. There is speculation that a tapered implant may have a better bone response because it is root form, filling more of the marginal gap. This speculation was unsubstantiated.
- “bone preservation” by implants doesn’t exist. In this study it was found that there was 30-50% marginal/buccal plate loss (which is essentially the same as is found after extractions). This is likely due to the fact that the PDL of the tooth root is supplying that facial bone with blood supply and when the tooth is gone, the blood supply is not maintained.
- The crest of bone between teeth was not greatly affected. Despite large reductions in buccal plate, the interproximal bone was maintained (possibly due to the maintained blood supply of the neighboring PDL).
