Background: Digitally customized abutments are increasingly used in contemporary implant prosthodontics.
Purpose: This systematic review and meta-analysis aimed at comparing the peri-implant clinical outcomes of digitally customized and prefabricated abutments.
Materials and methods: The search strategies included electronic databases (PubMed, Embase, Scopus, and Cochrane clinical trials database) and related journals up to September, 2020. A qualitative and quantitative synthesis was performed on data extracted from the included studies.
Results: Three RCTs (number of patients = 120; number of dental implants = 120) and two prospective cohort studies (number of patients = 144; number of dental implants = 144) with one to three-year follow-up periods were included. The quantitative analyses did not demonstrate a significant difference between digitally customized and prefabricated abutments for peri-implant pocket depth (P = 0.62), plaque index (P = 0.67), bleeding on probing (P = 0.43), keratinized mucosa width (P = 0.75), and pink aesthetic score (P = 0.30) at one-year follow-up visit. The qualitative analyses for marginal bone level change, calculus accumulation, implant survival rate, implant success rate, white aesthetic score, and patient-reported outcomes did not demonstrate a significant difference between two groups during 1 to 3-year follow-up visits.
Conclusion: The current data do not provide evidence of significant differences between two abutment fabrication methods in terms of peri-implant clinical outcomes within short-term period (CRD42020170807).
Keywords: computer-aided design; computer-aided manufacturing; dental implant-abutment design; patient reported outcomes; treatment outcome.
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