Page 167 - Peri-implant health: the effect of implant design and surgical procedure on bone and soft tissue stability

FOUR-IMPLANT-SUPPORTED OVERDENTURE TREATMENT IN THE MAXILLA
The preliminary short-term data regarding peri-implant bone stability and peri- implant health are earlier published Glibert and colleagues.12 The latter study showed data up to 15–23 months and only pertaining to 15 patients. The Glibert study is a preliminary report of the current study whereby now all cases are followed for 36 months.
■ MATERIALSANDMETHODS
Patient population and surgical/prosthetic procedures
Fully edentulous patients in the maxilla in need of a four-implant- supported overdenture were included in this prospective clinical split-mouth study. The patient selection, surgical, and prosthetic procedure have been described in detail previously by Glibert and colleagues.12
To study the effect of a microthreaded neck design and an internal abutment connection on peri-implant bone stability and peri- implant health, the commercially available Deep Conical Cylindrical implant (DCC, Southern Implants, Irene, South Africa) served as a basis for the other three experimental implants (Southern Implants). All implants were straight-wall implants with a thread pitch of 0.6 mm and had the same implant surface roughness (1.3 μm) and the same
Figure 1: Schematic drawing of the four study implants
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