Performance of Sintered, Porous-Surfaced, Press-Fit Implants After 10 Years of Function in the Partially Edentulous Posterior Mandible

This article updates the results of a prospective clinical trial of press-fit, sintered, porous-surfaced dental implants placed in the posterior mandible of partially edentulous patients. Implants used had overall lengths (including transgingival collar regions) of 7 or 9 mm with designed intrabony lengths (lengths of sintered surface in contact with bone) of 6 or 8 mm. Forty-eight implants were placed in 24 patients, the majority of which replaced molar teeth, and the mean crown-toroot ratio was 1.4. Over 10 years of implant function, 2 patients with 3 implants died and 3 patients with 4 implants were lost to follow-up because of infirmity or relocation. The survival and success rates were both 95.5%. Two implants failed; the mean cumulative crestal bone loss (measured from the implantabutment interface) for the remaining implants was 1.2 mm. Crestal bone loss was not affected by the crown-to-root ratio, prosthesis design, or whether an implant was the most distal unit in a sextant. However, there was a trend for greater crestal bone loss when implants were opposed by implants rather than by natural teeth.