Assessment of adjunctive flurbiprofen therapy in root-form implant healing with digital subtraction radiography

The goals of these case reports were to (1) apply digital subtraction radiography to the assessment of the healing of root-form implants so that small changes in bone height and density could be detected and (2) to compare the bony support around root-form implants in patients prescribed the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, flurbiprofen, with support in patients who did not receive the flurbiprofen as adjunctive therapy. Titanium root-form implants were surgically placed in four patients who were randomly assigned to receive either 100 mg flurbiprofen twice a day for three months or no flurbiprofen (as controls). Radiographs were taken immediately post-operatively and at four months. Digital subtraction radiography was used to detect sites of bone gain, loss, or unchanged bone around the implant. This four-month pilot study suggests that the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug, flurbiprofen, appears to be associated with increased bone density surrounding dental implants, and that digital subtraction radiography may be useful for the evaluation of bone density changes around dental implants.