Aim: To determine the 3-year clinical and dimensional change of the soft tissue following implant placement in healed sites before and after loading with either customized or conventional healing abutments.
Materials and methods: Premolar/molar implants were immediately loaded with either provisional and customized abutments without finishing lines according to principles of the Biologically Oriented Preparation Technique (BOPT), test group, or conventional healing abutments, control group. Three months later, the definitive crowns were fabricated. Primary outcomes (changes in the soft tissue) and secondary outcomes (adverse events) had been registered.
Result: Fifty out of 87 subjects originally included were finally selected for this retrospective analysis: 23 in the test and 27 in the control group. During the first days after surgery 2 adverse events of mucositis, one for each group, occurred. A Few technical complications such as unscrewing 4 screw-retained crowns were recorded. A significant increase in the alveolar width was observed in both groups (test = +2.5±0.5mm, and control = +1.0±0.9mm). The widths appeared to not be merely changed from 3 months to 3 years in both groups. There were no significant differences regarding the width of the keratinized mucosa measured at baseline and after follow-up. Jemt papilla index showed a higher increase in the test group compared with that of the control group.
Conclusion: Within 3 years of the follow-up period, peri-implant soft tissue outcomes of single, immediately loaded implants with customized healing abutments showed better results in terms of thickness and width when they were compared with those of the conventional group. Side effects count (mucositis and dehiscence) appeared to be very similar between the two groups. In addition, customized healing abutments led to significant augmentation of the alveolar width more than twice that registered in the conventional group.
Keywords: anatomical cap; customized abutment; dental abutment; dental implant; implant placement.