A Comparative Clinical Investigation of 2 Early Loaded ITI Dental Implants Supporting an Overdenture in the Mandible

The purpose of this prospective clinical study was to evaluate the efficacy of early loading of implants and to provide evidence to support simplified treatment of mandibular edentulism by using an implant designed for 1-stage surgery, combined with ball abutments to circumvent the need for a fixed prosthodontic superstructure. Historically, the recommended time between the placement and functional loading of dental implants has been 3 months in the mandible. This recommendation is the result of a systematically chosen healing time during development of implant treatment. In recent years, histologic and experimental studies have shown that specially designed implants can result in increased bone-to-implant contact at earlier healing times. Accordingly, these implants can be placed into function faster than previously recommended. In this study, 21 patients aged between 61 and 85 years with edentulous mandibles were included. All received 2 titanium plasma-sprayed, solid-screw dental implants in the interforaminal region. Ten patients had the implants loaded with an overdenture connected with ball abutments after 3 months (control group). The other 11 patients (test group) had prostheses connected to the ball abutments after a maximum of 3 weeks. Marginal bone resorption, Periotest values, and patient satisfaction were evaluated. The cumulative post-loading implant survival rate was 100% for both groups after 24 months. Marginal bone resorption after 1 year around all implants ranged from 0 to 2 mm (no significant differences between groups; P .05). Periotest values for all implants 1 year after loading were below zero (range -1 to -6). The results of this clinical trial suggest that successful early loading of 2 implants is possible provided there is uncomplicated implant placement.