Abstract

The most recently reported techniques for the rehabilitation of the atrophic posterior maxilla are increasingly less invasive, as they are generally oriented to avoid sinus floor elevation with lateral access. The authors describe a mini-invasive surgical technique for short spiral implant insertion for the prosthetic rehabilitation of the atrophic posterior maxilla, which could be considered a combination of several previously described techniques based on the under-preparation of the implant site to improve fixture primary stability and crestal approach to the sinus floor elevation without heterologous bone graft. Eighty short spiral implants were inserted in the molar area of the maxilla in patients with 4.5–6 mm of alveolar bone, measured on pre-operative computed tomography. The surgical technique involved careful drilling for the preparation of implant sites at differentiated depths, allowing bone dislocation in the apical direction, traumatic crestal sinus membrane elevation, and insertion of an implant (with spiral morphology) longer than pre-operative measurements. Prostheses were all single crowns. In all cases, a spiral implant 2–4 mm longer than the residual bone was placed. Only two implants were lost due to peri-implantitis but subsequently replaced and followed-up. Bone loss values around the implants after three months (at the re-opening) ranged from 0 to 0.6 mm, (median value: 0.1 mm), while after two years, the same values ranged from 0.4 to 1.3 mm (median value: 0.7 mm). Clinical post-operative complications did not occur. After ten years, no implant has been lost. Overall, the described protocol seems to show good results in terms of predictability and patient compliance.

Highlights

  • Growing evidence exists in the literature regarding the use of short dental implants for the prosthetic rehabilitation of jaws with reduced vertical bone dimension [1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8]

  • The current study describes a minimally invasive surgical procedure for the insertion of 80 short spiral implants in the posterior atrophic maxilla using a surgical technique of progressive steps that promotes crestal sinus lifting, with a follow-up of 10 years

  • A longer implant than the pre-operative radiological measures was positioned. Two implants both placed by flapless surgery and with healing cap positioning were lost before the prosthetic rehabilitation, but they were repositioned after 45 days

Read more

Summary

Introduction

Growing evidence exists in the literature regarding the use of short dental implants (usually considered as

Methods
Results
Conclusion
Full Text
Published version (Free)

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call