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Updated: May 14, 2026
An Improved Mechanical Testing Method to Assess Bone-implant Anchorage
Published on: February 10, 2014
Effect of decreased implant healing time on bone (re)modeling adjacent to plateaued implants under functional loading
Jing Dai1, Ning Cheng, Richard J Miron
1Ministry Education Key Laboratory for Oral Biomedical Engineering, School & Hospital of Stomatology, Wuhan University, 237 Luoyu Road, Wuhan, 430079, People's Republic of China.
Objectives:
The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of early functional loading to plateaued implants on bone formation and implant stability in a dog model.
Materials And Methods:
Early loading (EL), nonloading control, and delayed loading (DL) groups were compared using six beagle dogs under functional loading. The Periotest® values were measured dynamically for 6 weeks. Peri-implant bone architecture was evaluated qualitatively by microcomputed tomography (μCT) and analyzed quantitatively by mineral apposition rates (MAR), bone-to-implant contact (BIC), and bone volumes (BV/TV) after the euthanasia at 3 and 6 weeks after loading.
Results:
The EL implants showed poor stability at 1 week, but greater stability at 2 and 4 weeks after loading compared to DL implants. There was no significant difference between MAR of EL and unloaded implants at both time intervals. The EL implants displayed a significantly higher MAR when compared to DL implants at 3-5 weeks. A significantly higher BIC for the DL group was observed when compared to the EL group at 3 weeks following loading, however at 6 weeks; no significant difference between these groups was observed. The EL group gained a higher BIC than the no-treatment control group at 6 weeks.
Conclusions:
For plateaued implant, the decreased healing time (1 week) displays a positive effect on peri-implant bone (re)modeling under functional loading during the early phase.
Clinical Relevance:
The early application of functional loading on plateaued implants can be used clinically to shorten the course of treatment and improve esthetics.
