The health of soft tissues around four dental implants loaded immediately supporting a 4-year-old fixed screw-retained prosthesis

Abstract

The aim of this study was to assess the soft tissues health around the implant/abutment interfaces of fixed screw-retained prosthesis supported by four dental implants after at least 1-year in function. All the implants were placed between December 1, 2015 and April 30, 2019. Digital implant surgical planning was performed for all the complete-arch rehabilitations and then full-guided surgery was performed. The fixed-interim prostheses were delivered the day of the surgery and replaced by definitive prostheses after the healing period. Patients were followed-up to determinate peri-implant scores, such as Plaque Score (PS) and Bleeding on Probing (BoP). A total of 160 implants were placed in 37 patients, whereas 3 patients received both arches rehabilitated. A total of 40 complete-arch rehabilitations were performed, 26 in the maxilla and 14 in the mandible. Only 5 implants failed resulting in an overall implant survival rate of 96.9%. BoP was detected around 6 implants (3.7%) and 16 implants showed a superficial amount of plaque resulting a Plaque Score of 10%. Within the limitation of this study, it seems that the use of a fixed screw-retained prostheses supported by four dental implants to rehabilitate edentulous jaws could be a valid treatment option in the short and medium term without critical peri-implant issues. However, several perspective studies with longer follow-up are needed to achieve more predictable results.