Fixed implant-supported prostheses with welded titanium frameworks

Eighty-six edentulous patients provided with Brånemark implants were randomly selected for fixed prostheses with modified framework designs. This study describes alternative laboratory techniques in which premachined titanium components are welded together to form the framework. Clinical experience, following the patients for 1 year after placement, indicates that it is a predictable technique with a similar pattern of complications as experienced by patients with cast frameworks supported by implants. The prostheses are considered to be slightly more bulky than cast frameworks, but seem to have, on a clinical level, a better fit to the implants.