Purpose: To assess whether implant-retained prostheses produced with a laser-sintering technique present accuracy and passive fit comparable to their milled counterparts.
Materials and methods: Two Regular Neck Straumann analogs were placed in a block of polymethyl methacrylate (PMMA) at 15 mm of distance and parallel to one another. The PMMA block was then scanned, and two groups of cobalt-chromium (Co-Cr) screw-retained, three-unit implant prostheses were fabricated using milling (control) and laser sintering (test) techniques. The prostheses were then screwed on the PMMA block, and the vertical marginal gap between the prostheses and the analogs at the implant-abutment junction was measured twice: (1) when only one screw was tightened, and (2) when both screws were fully tightened. The mean marginal gap measurements were compared to assess the difference in terms of passive fit between the laser-sintered and milled prostheses.
Results: The mean marginal gap of the milled and laser-sintered groups was 23.18 μ (SD = 6.2) and 23.71 μ (SD = 19.5), respectively.
Conclusion: Laser-sintered prostheses presented a marginal fit comparable to milled.
