In vitro evaluation of prosthesis-level implant stability using 'BracketPeg'.

Area of Science:

• Dental Implantology
• Biomaterials Science
• Prosthodontics

Background:

• Dental implant stability is crucial for successful osseointegration and long-term prosthesis function.
• Current methods for assessing implant stability primarily focus on the fixture level.
• There is a need for reliable methods to measure implant stability at the prosthesis level.

Purpose of the Study:

• To evaluate the feasibility of measuring dental implant stability at the prosthesis level using a novel magnetic peg, BracketPeg.
• To assess the reliability and accuracy of BracketPeg for implant stability measurements.
• To compare BracketPeg measurements with other devices for damping capacity assessment (DCA) and resonance frequency analysis (RFA).

Main Methods:

• Forty dental implants of varying diameters were placed in artificial bone blocks.
• Customized zirconia prostheses were fabricated for each implant.
• Implant stability was measured at fixture and prosthesis levels using DCA (Anycheck™) and RFA (Osstell™ Beacon, ChecQ™).
• BracketPeg was utilized to obtain prosthesis-level RFA measurements.

Main Results:

• Implant stability quotient (ISQ) was significantly lower at the prosthesis level compared to the fixture level.
• RFA values varied with BracketPeg position, showing lower stability at the coronal compared to the apical position.
• Two RFA devices demonstrated good agreement in ISQ measurements (mean difference: -0.58).

Conclusions:

• BracketPeg is a practical and feasible tool for measuring dental implant stability at the prosthesis level.
• The device provides reliable and consistent measurements, comparable to other RFA devices.
• Prosthesis-level stability assessment using BracketPeg can aid in clinical implant evaluation.