Efficacy of Clinical Methods to Assess Jawbone Tissue Prior to and During Endosseous Dental Implant Placement: A Systematic Literature Review

Purpose: To evaluate the evidence for the diagnostic accuracy of clinical methods to assess bone density, quantity, or quality prior to and during dental implant placement. Materials and Methods: A PubMed literature search with specific indexing terms and a hand search were made. From the retrieved titles and abstracts, 3 reviewers selected publications on the basis of predetermined inclusion and exclusion criteria. Data were extracted from the selected publications using a protocol. Original studies were interpreted with the aid of the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (QUADAS) tool. Results: The literature search yielded 145 titles and abstracts, of which 71 were selected and read in full text. Seven studies were judged relevant. In 1 study, no method was presented as the test method. In 6 studies, the results of the test method were compared to those of a reference method. However, only 1 study presented the results in terms of percentage of correct diagnoses. In that study, the use of periapical radiography together with reference images yielded correct assessment of the trabecular pattern of the mandible in 3 categories in 58% of the sites. The kappa index of interobserver agreement was 0.35 and intraobserver agreement was 0.67. Corresponding kappa values for 4 classes of bone quality presented by Lekholm and Zarb were 0.33 and 0.43, respectively. No study examined the accuracy of the method originally described by Lekholm and Zarb. Conclusion: The evidence for the efficacy of clinical methods to assess jawbone tissue prior to and during endosseous dental implant placement is sparse. This emphasizes the need for studies that incorporate accepted methodologic criteria for diagnostic efficacy. Parole chiave: bone, bone density, dental implants, diagnostic accuracy