Success of Immediately Placed and Restored Single Implants

Objectives: The purpose of this longitudinal study is to investigate the success rate of immediately placed and restored single implants in the esthetic zone. Methods: Inclusion criteria for study subjects: systemically healthy, non-smoking patients with one maxillary anterior hopeless tooth surrounded by natural or implant-supported dentition. The recipient site has adequate bone to allow immediate placement of an implant after extraction. On the day of surgery, the hopeless tooth was atraumatically removed, a tapered flat-top or scalloped implant (NobelBiocare) was randomly assigned and inserted, impression made, and the provisional restoration placed. Primary stability was determined as the ability to achieve 35 N-cm of tightening torque at the time of placement and final restoration. Bone graft materials were used if the socket was more than 1 mm wider than the implant border. The final prosthesis was seated within eight weeks of surgery. For those implants demonstrating inadequate stability, a conventional 4-6 month healing period was employed. All subjects were examined at 3, 6, 9, and 12 months after surgery with radiographs and clinical indices and will be followed annually for 3 years. Results: As a preliminary report, a total of 24 patients were enrolled in the study, 9 males and 15 females, age between 18 and 69 years old. There were 21 implants (87.5%) ready for permanent restoration within eight weeks of surgery. Patients with 23 implants were followed from 3 to 12 months. There was one failure after the first eight weeks following surgery, giving a success rate for the immediately placed implants of 95.8% during the follow-up period. Conclusions: These data indicate that when each case is carefully evaluated for its appropriateness for immediate placement, the procedure can have comparably favorable results as traditional delayed implant placement and restoration.

The study is sponsored by NobelBiocare AB, Sweden