Histological evaluation of the peri-implant tissues of three human-retrieved Straumann implants

The most frequently-used histological parameters to define dental implant osseointegration include bone-to-implant contact and quantitative and qualitative assessments of the surrounding tissue (rate of mineralized/non-mineralized tissue and proportion of lamellar and woven bone compared to soft tissue or bone marrow). The aim of this paper was to present the histological features of the bone tissue surrounding three well-functioning Straumann SLA and SLActive implants placed in two patients after 12 and 60 months of loading. The percentage of osseointegration ranged from 66.4% and 71.9% for SLA surfaces, to 88.3% for the SLActive implant. Such results confirm that osseointegration occurs with high rates of bone-to-implant contact in humans, and that implants can be similarly clinically successful, although they show different bone-to-implant contact values.