implants - international magazine of oral implantology

I clinical technique _ crestal bone management _Introduction The longevity of dental implants is highly de- pendent on integration between implant compo- nents and oral tissues, including hard and soft tis- sues.Studieshaveshownthatsubmergedtitanium implantshad0.9to1.6mmmarginalbonelossfrom the first thread by the end of the first year in func- tion,whileonly0.05to0.13mmbonelossoccurred after the first year.1–3 The first report in the literature to quantify early crestal bone loss was a 15-year retrospective study thatevaluatedimplantsplacedinedentulousjaws.1 In this study, Adell et al. reported an average of 1.2 mm marginal bone loss from the first thread during healing and the first year after loading. In contrast with the bone loss during the first year, there was an average of only 0.1 mm bone lost an- nually thereafter. Based on the findings on submerged implants, Albrektssonetal.andSmithandZarbproposedcri- teria for implant success, including a vertical bone loss of less than 0.2 mm annually following the im- plant’s first year of function.4, 5 Non-submerged implants have also demon- strated early crestal bone loss, with greater bone loss in the maxilla than in the mandible, ranging from 0.6 to 1.1 mm, at the first year of func- tion.6–8 The maintenance of crestal bone around dental implants Author_Dr Mohammed A. Alshehri, Saudi Arabia 20 I implants2_2011 Fig. 2 Fig. 3Fig. 1