[Prosthetic dilemmas. Immediate versus conventional loading of implants in the edentulous mandible]

Most edentulous patients experience retention problems with their lower denture, which often results in functional problems and also social ones. Since the introduction of the osseointegration concept for the edentulous patient, this patient group has been successfully treated, with demonstrably positive effects for long periods of time. The traditional protocol calls for late loading of the implants. Immediate loading of 4 implants with a bar-retained overdenture or a fixed dental prosthesis has proved to be as successful as the delayed (non-immediate) loading concept. The treatment of the edentulous patient with an overdenture on two implants has until recently been based on a treatment protocol which called for early, but not immediate, yet not definitive retention form. However, recent research shows that immediate loading of 2 implants with an overdenture is just as successful and what's more not more expensive. Because of newly developed treatment concepts delayed loading no longer has to be an automatic choice.