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Survival of NobelDirect implants: an analysis of 550 consecutively placed implants at 18 different clinical centers
Tomas Albrektsson1, Jan Gottlow, Luiz Meirelles
1Department of Biomaterials, Institute for Clinical Sciences, Sahlgrenska Academy, University of Göteborg, Göteborg, Sweden. tomas.albrektsson@biomaterials.gu.se
Background:
A recently introduced implant, the NobelDirect (Nobel Biocare AB, Göteborg, Sweden), has previously been documented with substantial bone resorption in a large number of operated cases.
Purpose:
The aim of this study was to evaluate the failure rate of NobelDirect implants in a retrospective multicenter survey.
Materials And Methods:
A total of 550 NobelDirect implants consecutively placed in over 269 patients at 18 centers were evaluated with regard to failure rate after an average follow-up of about 1 year.
Results:
The overall failure percentage was 10.9% (59 failures). The 58 implants not loaded directly showed only one failure (1.7%) versus 58 failures (11.8%) of those implants that were loaded directly. A chemical x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy analysis of an implant from the original batch showed up to 3.5% silicon at parts of the implants. A retrieval analysis of one implant removed at 2 years after placement demonstrated bone resorption down to the level of the fifth thread.
Conclusions:
It is concluded that the NobelDirect implant, if placed with a punch procedure, ground down in situ, and loaded directly, shows an unusually high failure rate at 1 year.