Socket healing with and without immediate implant placement

The aim of the present review was to describe the studies produced in Latin America that contributed to the elucidation of the effect of tooth extraction with and without immediate implant installation. An electronic search was conducted in MEDLINE (PubMed), Scopus, Scielo, Lilacs, and Embase to include clinical and experimental (animal) studies on immediate implants. The studies selected had to fulfill the following inclusion criteria: (i) to present clinical and/or histological data on socket healing with or without immediate implant installation; (ii) to be approved by a Latin American Ethic Committee or comparable; and (iii) to include at least one author from a Latin American institution or to be conducted in a Latin America institution. Latin American studies that fulfilled these criteria demonstrated that immediate implant installation was conducive for predictable osseointegration and high survival rates but failed to prevent bone modeling and dimensional reduction of the alveolar ridge. In addition, it was also shown that regenerative approaches, including hard and soft tissue grafts at the time of immediate implant placement, may be beneficial to compensate for the alveolar ridge reduction. Regenerative approaches immediately after tooth extraction may decrease the amount of dimension reduction of the alveolar ridge.