How does the timing of implant placement to extraction affect outcome?

To systematically review the current literature on the clinical outcomes and incidence of complications associated with immediate implants (implants placed into extraction sockets at the same surgery that the tooth is removed) and early implants (implants placed following soft tissue healing).

A MEDLINE search was conducted for English papers on immediate/early placement of implants based on a series of search terms. Prospective as well as retrospective studies (randomized/nonrandomized clinical trials, cohort studies, case control studies, and case reports) were considered, as long as the follow-up period was at least 1 year of loading and at least 8 patients and/or at least 10 implants had been examined. Screening and data abstraction were performed independently by 3 reviewers. The types of complications assessed were implant loss; marginal bone loss; soft tissue complications, including peri-implantitis; and esthetics.

The initial search provided 351 abstracts, of which 146 were selected for full-text analysis. Finally, 17 prospective and 17 retrospective studies were identified, with observation times generally between 1 and 2 years for the prospective studies and around 5 years for the retrospective studies. The heterogeneity of the studies (including postextraction defect characteristics, surgical technique with or without membrane and/or bone substitute, implant location in socket, inclusion and exclusion criteria, and prosthetic rehabilitation), however, rendered a meta-analysis impossible. Most papers contained only data on implant loss and did not provide useful information on failing implants or on hard and soft tissue changes. In general, the implant loss remained below 5% for both immediate and early placed implants (range, 0% to 40% for immediate implants and 0% to 9% for early placed implants), with a tendency toward higher losses when implants were also immediately loaded.

Because of the lack of long-term data, questions regarding whether peri-implant health, prosthesis stability, degree of bone loss, and esthetic outcome of immediate or early placed implants are comparable with implants placed in healed sites remain unanswered.