Titanium versus ceramic implants for overdentures: a meta-analysis of prospective studies

The aim of this study was to compare the use of titanium and ceramic implants for overdentures in terms of their failure rates, surface treatments, and marginal bone loss (MBL). The literature was searched using the PubMed, Scopus, and Cochrane databases up to October 2019. Clinical studies in which ceramic and titanium implants for overdentures were compared in terms of their failure rates, surface treatments, and MBL were included in the meta-analysis. The meta-analysis was performed based on the Mantel-Haenszel and inverse variance methods using a fixed-effects model and 95% confidence intervals. A total of 2747 publications were identified after the exclusion of duplicate articles. Fifteen were selected for full-text reading, and 2 were included in the review. Each of the 2 studies initially enrolled 24 patients, and a total of 38 patients (mean age of 62 years) were evaluated at the 1-year follow-up. A total of 112 titanium implants (success rate of 71.1%) and 146 ceramic implants (success rate of 65.9%) were placed. Twenty titanium implants failed, and an associated MBL of 0.15 mm was observed. For ceramic implants, 42 failures occurred, and an associated MBL of 0.33 mm was observed. Titanium implants provided better clinical results (less MBL and lower failure rate) for the support of overdentures than did ceramic implants.