Clinical evaluation of the implant survival rate in patients subjected to immediate implant loading protocols

In the past 20 years, several studies and clinical trials have reported similar results for transmucosal implants as compared to submerged implants. Several advantages of immediate loading have been pointed out, such as the reduction of treatment time, trauma reduction, and immediate esthetic and functional improvements.

The main objective of this study was to clinically evaluate the implant survival rate in patients with total rehabilitation via implants that underwent immediate loading in the past 5 years.

A cross-sectional, descriptive, observational analysis was conducted. The implant survival rate for an edentulous maxilla or mandible was assessed with regard to the loading protocol by means of a questionnaire and clinical observation. The study included 103 patients with edentulous jaws rehabilitated with fixed prostheses on implants. Each patient received 4-6 implants. In total, 474 implants were placed. Factors such as the implant survival rate as well as biological and prosthetic complications were evaluated and analyzed statistically.

Of the 474 implants initially placed, 458 were considered osteointegrated and 16 were considered lost, which corresponds to a 96.62% implant survival rate. The most common types of failure were prosthetic fractures (46.2%), peri-implantitis (23.1%) and unscrewing (11.5%) in the first 5 years.

The rate of osseointegration for implants placed under immediate loading was extremely high, in accordance with the previously published studies, which led us to conclude that currently, this is a surgical procedure with a high rate of success and high predictability.