Background: Immediate or early loading of dental implants becomes a clinically feasible concept.
Purpose: The aim was to evaluate the effects of different loading protocols (immediate, early, and delayed) on secondary stability and peri-implant bone density of single implants in the posterior maxilla.
Materials and methods: Thirty-nine implants (Dentium, South-Korea) were placed in 39 patients. After placement, implant stability values (ISQ) and baseline peri-implant bone density values derived from cone-beam computed tomography were recorded. Thirteen implants were included randomly in each loading groups. The secondary ISQ values were recorded during follow-up visits. Peri-implant bone density values were measured 1 year after placement again. Data was statistically analyzed.
Results: Immediate-loaded group showed the lowest ISQ values, 1 month after placement. During the next follow-up visits, delayed-loaded group showed the lowest ISQ values while other groups showed comparable results. Early loading increased the peri-implant bone density greater than the other groups.
Conclusions: The peri-implant bone of early-loaded implants was significantly denser than that of immediate- and delayed-loaded implants, 1 year after placement. Density increment can be judged as the radiological findings of loaded-bone, which may also reduce the need for histomorphometric analysis of human biopsy to evaluate the bone reaction around the implants.
Keywords: CBCT; bone density; early loading; immediate loading; primary stability.
© 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.