Background: Stress concentrated at an implant's neck may affect bone-to-implant contact (BIC). The objective of this study was to evaluate four different implant neck designs using two different drilling protocols on the BIC. Methods: Ninety-six implants were inserted in 12 minipigs calvarium. Implants neck designs evaluated were: type 1-6 coronal flutes (CFs), 8 shallow microthreads (SMs); type 2-6 CFs,4 deep microthreads (DMs); type 3-4 DMs; type 4-2 CFs, 8 SMs. Two groups of forty-eight implants were inserted with a final drill diameter of 2.8 mm (DP1) or 3.2 mm (DP2). Animals were sacrificed after 1 and 3 months, total-BIC (t-BIC) and coronal-BIC (c-BIC) were evaluated by nondecalcified histomorphometry analysis. Results: At 1 month, t-BIC ranged from 85-91% without significant differences between implant types or drilling protocol. Flutes on the coronal aspect impaired the BIC at 3 m. c-BIC of implant types with 6 CFs was similar and significantly lower than that of implant types 3 and 4. c-BIC of implant type 4 with SMs was highest of all implant types after both healing periods. Conclusions: BIC was not affected by the drilling protocol. CFs significantly impaired the -BIC. Multiple SMs were associated with greater c-BIC.
Keywords: bone-to-implant contact; drilling; flutes; microthreads.