Abstracts (17)
A Clinical Trial of a Partially Porous Coated, Endosseous Dental Implant in Humans: Protocol and 6 Month Results
D.A. Deporter, P.A. Watson, R.M. Pilliar, M. Pharoah, M. Chipman, and D.C. Smith
Tissue Integration in Oral, Orthopedic and Maxillofacial
Reconstruction; Eds. W.R. Laney and D.E. Tolman, Quintessence Books,
Chicago May 1992;250-258
Dental implantology has become a rapidly developing field of research and clinical application since Branemark and co-workers reported their results of a 15 year followup in humans treated with a threaded implant design of pure titanium. The Branemark system, however, is considered by some to be expensive, complicated to place, and technique-sensitive. There is, therefore, a need for simpler, less invasive, and biologically more compliant dental implant systems that could be used reliably by a wider group of practitioners.
We have previously reported on the design and testing in dogs of a new partially porous-coated endosseous dental implant system that appears to have several advantages over threaded implant designs. The implant root component is fabricated from Ti-6A1-4V, has a tapered, truncated cone shape to facilitate implant placement and optimize stress transfer at the bone/implant interface and utilizes a powder- sintered, porous surface topography to promote integration by means of bone ingrowth over selected regions of the implant. In a comparative study in beagle dogs, this implant performed as well as a threaded implant system of pure titanium over an 18 month functional period. However, the results indicated that porous-coated implants could be shorter than threaded implants because of the increased surface area per unit length of implant available for bone ingrowth with the porous design.
This report is concerned with an experimental protocol and 6 month results from the first human trial in which this partially porous-coated implant system has been used to treat completely edentulous patients, the majority of whom had severe mandibular alveolar ridge resorption. In keeping with our objective of developing simple treatment approaches that would be relatively inexpensive and applicable by a large group of practitioners, these patients were managed using three implants in the anterior mandible and a removable overdenture.
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