A 10-year prospective clinical and radiographic study of one-stage dental implants

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this prospective study was to evaluate one-stage dental implants clinically and radiographically after 10 years in function. MATERIAL AND METHODS: Twenty-five patients with a total of 68 implants [46 hollow screws (HS) and 22 hollow cylinders (HC)] who previously participated in 5-year prospective clinical study returned for a 10-year follow-up. For each patient, informed consent was obtained, medical and dental history was reviewed and soft and hard tissue conditions were evaluated using the modified plaque index, modified sulcus bleeding index, probing depth, suppuration, attachment level, distance from the implant crown margin to the coronal border of the peri-implant mucosa keratinized mucosa and periapical radiographs to calculate crestal bone-level changes. RESULTS: As expected, the mean crestal bone-level changes were the greatest in the first year following restoration placement, while only minimal changes were noticed in the subsequent years. HC implants showed a statistically significant higher mean crestal bone loss when compared with HS implants at year 10. Gender was also statistically significantly related to the mean crestal bone loss at years 1, 3, 5 and 10, with male subjects exhibiting more bone loss than female subjects. However, age and peri-implant soft tissue parameters showed low levels of correlation with the mean crestal bone-level changes, and proved to be weak predictors for the mean crestal bone loss at years 5 and 10. CONCLUSIONS: This study confirms that the mean crestal bone loss rates of the HS and HC implants are well within the clinically acceptable parameters. In addition, some of the clinical parameters could be used to assess and predict future crestal bone loss.