Article abstract for Medicina danes magazine.
Aleksa Marković, DDS, PhD; José Luís Calvo-Guirado, DDS, PhD, MSc; Zoran Lazić, DDS, PhD;
Gerardo Gómez-Moreno, DDS, PhD, MSc; Dejan Ćalasan, DDS, MSc; Javier Guardia, DDS, PhD;
Snježana Čolic, DDS, PhD; Antonio Aguilar-Salvatierra, DDS; Bojan Gačić, DDS, PhD;
Rafael Delgado-Ruiz, DDS, PhD, MSc; Bojan Janjić, DDS, MSc; Tijana Mišić, DDS
Purpose of the study: To evaluate the effect of the implant site preparation method and dental implant design (self-tapping/non-self-tapping) on the stability of dental implants placed in the posterior maxilla, where the bone density is D3 or D4. Resonance frequency analysis was used to measure stability.
Materials and methods: During the study, 56 self-tapping implants (Blue Sky Bredent, Senden, Germany) and 56 non-self-tapping implants (Standard Plus Straumann, Waldenburg, Switzerland) were placed. All were placed in the posterior maxilla. The implants were placed after prior site preparation using lateral bone condensation or drilling according to a specified protocol. Implant stability was measured using resonance frequency analysis immediately after placement and subsequently at weekly intervals, up to and including the twelfth week after placement.
Results: Stability immediately after placement and throughout the observation period was significantly greater in self-tapping and non-self-tapping implants placed in sites prepared using lateral bone condensation than in those placed in sites prepared solely by bone drilling. Both implant types (self-tapping and non-self-tapping) showed similar stability immediately after placement and one week after surgery if the site had been prepared using prior bone condensation. Self-tapping implants showed significantly greater stability in measurements from the second to the twelfth week after implantation. Among implants placed in sites prepared solely by drilling, self-tapping implants showed significantly greater stability than non-self-tapping implants throughout the measurement period.
Conclusion: The study shows that preparing the site solely by drilling in soft bone (D3 and D4) is an unsuitable procedure. If this procedure is used, the study's conclusions indicate that it is significantly more appropriate to use self-tapping implants. In soft bone (posterior maxilla), site preparation using the lateral bone condensation technique is highly recommended, regardless of the type of implant used.