Detecting bone changes along dental implants, after immediate or delayed loading, using digital subtraction on cropped panoramic radiographs. A prospective clinical trial with minimum 3-year follow up


Published: 1 March 2019
Abstract Views: 790
pdf: 655
Publisher's note
All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Authors

Aim The aim of this study was to assess bone changes along implants after immediate or delayed loading, using subtractions of digital images originated from cropped panoramic radiographs and visual evaluation.

Materials and methods Eleven patients received 4 Ankylos implants interforaminal in the mandible. In 7 patients the implants were loaded immediately and 4 followed delayed loading. All patients were restored with a telescopic overdenture with Syncone abutments. From each patient 3 panoramic radiographs (PRs) were obtained: upon delivery of the restoration (T1), 6 months later (T2) and after 3 years (T3). 33 implants were finally selected. The radiographs were analyzed using the Emago® Software. The grey scale values were measured either manually (Stage A) or automatically (Stage B) in six areas (neck, middle and apex; both mesially and distally) along the implants€™ sides to evaluate the bone density during clinical function. Images were also visually evaluated by five observers to detect bone changes at the cervical implant area.

Results Strong positive correlation between the two stages (A and B) was found in all 3 examinations (Pearson€™s r 0.84-0.98). The t-test showed no statistically significant differences in grey level values between immediate and delayed loading (p<0.05) and no statistically significant changes in the visual evaluation among implants undergoing  either immediately or delayed loading (p<0.05).

Conclusions Emago® is a valuable method for bone level assessment around implants€™ neck. The grey value measurements of the bone adjacent to the implants that have been loaded either immediately or delayed do not significantly differ after 3 years of fuction. The visual assessment of the PRs images supports these findings.


E. Andrikopoulou, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Department of Prosthodontics

S. Kourtis, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Associate Professor, Department of Prosthodontics

S. Damaskos, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Assistant Professor

Dept of Oral Diagnosis and Radiology, Dental School,

K. Tsiklakis, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens

Professor and Chairman, Dept of Oral Diagnosis and Radiology, Dental School,

Andrikopoulou, E., Kourtis, S., Damaskos, S., & Tsiklakis, K. (2019). Detecting bone changes along dental implants, after immediate or delayed loading, using digital subtraction on cropped panoramic radiographs. A prospective clinical trial with minimum 3-year follow up. Journal of Osseointegration, 11(1), 11–20. https://doi.org/10.23805/JO.2019.11.01.03

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Citations