Success and Survival Rates of Zirconia Implants: A Systematic Review

Introduction: In the past 40 years, titanium has been considered the "gold standard" in the manufacture of implants. Zirconia ceramic (zirconium dioxide ZrO2) has emerged as an alternative, to the need to improve aesthetics. Studies confirm the advantages of zirconia implants conferring better aesthetics, more biocompatibility, greater resistance to masticatory forces, increased soft tissue tolerance and less potential for bacterial colonization, when compared to titanium implants. Objective: Analyse success and survival rates of zirconia implants in clinical trials. Can zirconia implants be recommended for clinical daily practice? Materials and Methods: Research in Medline/PubMed, COCHRANE CENTRAL and Scopus databases with the following keywords: "zirconia", "zirconium", "implant" and "implants" in different combinations. Results: In the studies that evaluated survival rates (SR), the values were 60-100% up to two years of follow-up, 86-100% between two to four years, and 58.5-97.6% for more than five years. The success rate values for most of the trials9, 15-16, 18-20, 22, 26-27 is between 91.7-100%, being only 66% in two studies10-11 from the same author. Conclusions: Recent trials with better macro y micro design implants achieved rates comparable to titanium. Keywords: Zirconia, dental implants, survival rate, success rate, systematic review