When preparing an implant site, clinicians often base their assessment of the bone on subjective tactile and visual cues. This assessment is used to plan the surgical procedure for site preparation, including how many drilling steps will be used. The subjective nature of bone evaluation, consequently, results in poor reproducibility and may lead to under or over preparation of the site. Recently, an unconventional site preparation protocol was developed in which the decision of which instruments to use is dictated by insertion torque of the novel site preparation instrument (OsseoShaper™, Nobel Biocare AB, Gothenburg, Sweden). The aim of this study was to quantify the correlation of the site preparation torques of the new instrument with bone density and maximum implant insertion torques. In vitro and in vivo data showed strong linear correlation between site preparation torque and density and resulted in reliable implant insertion torques, respectively. From our analysis, we conclude that this new instrument and protocol has the potential to eliminate the need for additional intraoperative bone evaluation and may reduce the risk of inadequate preparation of the site due to the ability to serve as a predictor of the final implant insertion torque.
Keywords: bone density; bone quality; dental implants; implant insertion torque; osteotomy; site preparation.