Survival rate of short and ultrashort dental implants‐ retrospective study

Abstract

Background Oral rehabilitation with dental implants is conditioned by the bone available and by the presence of anatomical structures which conditionate the size of dental implants. The use of short and ultrashort implants avoids extra surgical procedures and eventual complications. The definition of short implants has been changed successively. The last European BDIZ EDI consensus in 2016 defined short implants for those smaller 8 mm in size and ultrashort implants smaller than 6 mm in size Aim/Hypothesis The aim of this study is to determine cumulative survival rate of short and ultrashort dental implants (BTI Biotechnology Institute - Spain), in a dental unit center (UMD CCL - SSCGD), in Lisbon, Portugal Materials and Methods A retrospective study design was adapted. From a total of 388 patients with a 675 short and ultrashort dental implants over 3 years period (2016 to 2018), we selected 144 patients (60 woman 84 men) with 248 short and ultrashort dental implants placed by the same oral surgeon and rehabilitated by the same restorative dentist. 67.7% of implants are 8.5 mm length, 23% are 7.5 mm length, 8.1% are 6.5 mm length and 1.2% are 5.5 mm length. The follow-up varies from 3 months to 3 years Results In this study the survival rate is 97.5%. 114 implants (45.97%) were placed in 60 female patients (41.7%) and 134 implants (54.03%) were placed in 84 male patients (58.3%). The mean age was 61.2. 6 implants failed (2.5%). 3 of these 6 implants were not placed because of lack of primary stability. The other three, one failed for late infection in the osseointegration phase and the other two failed because fibrointegrated (one in a total maxillary provisional bridge immediate loading and other one a single crown in maxilla with a implant-crown ratio of 3-1 and after 11 months of rehabilitation). Conclusion and Clinical Implications Within the limitation of the study the use of short and ultrashort implants seems to be a good alternative treatment to regenerated surgery.