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Marginal bone level changes and soft-tissue esthetics around implants with convergent transmucosal profiles: 10-year
Nicola Alberto Valente1,2, Gabriele Caruso3, Nicola Carrus4
1Division of Periodontology, School of Dental Medicine, Department of Surgical Sciences, Faculty of Medicine and Surgery, University of Cagliari, Cagliari, Italy. nicola.valente@unica.it.
Objectives:
The aim of this retrospective study was to analyze the long-term stability of marginal bone levels (MBL) and the Pink Esthetic Score (PES) in a cohort of patients treated with tissue-level implants featuring a convergent transmucosal profile.
Materials And Methods:
A retrospective longitudinal analysis was conducted on 108 patients who received 193 implants with a specific convergent neck design and were followed for over 10 years. MBL was measured on digital periapical radiographs at baseline (loading), short-term (1-2 years), medium-term (3-6 years), and long-term (7-10 years) intervals. Esthetic outcomes were evaluated using the PES at the same time points comparing clinical photographs with reference teeth. Data were analyzed using repeated measures analysis of variance.
Results:
MBL remained stable throughout the observation period, with mean values of 1.17 mm at short-term, 1.17 mm at medium-term, and 1.23 mm at long-term follow-up, showing no statistically significant changes over time (p = 0.454). Conversely, PES values demonstrated a statistically significant increasing trend (p < 0.001), improving from a baseline mean of 7.99 to 10.34 at the long-term evaluation. Significant improvements were noted between baseline and all subsequent time points.
Conclusions:
Within the limits of this retrospective study, tissue-level implants with a convergent transmucosal profile demonstrated stable marginal bone stability and a progressive improvement in soft tissue esthetics over a 10-year period. This specific convergent transmucosal geometry appears to favor positive peri-implant tissue adaptation and long-term stability.