A 5-Year Implant Follow-Up in Maxillary and Mandibular Horizontal Osseous Onlay Grafts and Native Bone

The purpose of this study is to analyze marginal bone levels (MBLs) around dental implants positioned in the upper and lower jaw with or without horizontal onlay grafting procedures, and to survey implant survival with a follow-up of 5 years. Seventeen patients were surveyed in the present retrospective chart review. A total of 27 dental implants positioned in pristine bone and 21 in horizontally grafted bone were enrolled. MBLs were recorded for 4 aspects during a radiologic survey of 5 years. Significant differences were searched for among times and surgical procedures with paired and unpaired comparison tests, respectively, and survival rates were calculated for the 2 groups. In the maxilla, no statistically-significant differences between pristine and augmented groups were obtained; the time comparisons for pristine implants showed an affection of palatal, mesial, and distal sides, whereas the resorption around implants placed into horizontally grafted bone of anterior maxilla seemed to be limited just to buccal and distal aspects. Comparisons with the pristine horizontal procedure revealed that just the buccal sides were involved. The analysis of time comparisons attested to a continuous alveolar bone remodeling during the entire time of the survey for the pristine group. Given the extremely unfavorable resorption at the buccal aspect of the augmented areas, clinicians should reserve dental implant positioning into horizontal bone graft to selected patients, in whom it may represent one of the last opportunities of rehabilitation with a fixed prosthesis.