More than 16 years after implant placement, the cumulative survival rate of a group of single implant patients treated at the Dental Specialist Clinic in Malmö, Sweden, between 1987 and 1993, was 91.5%, a Belgian research team reported at the 27th Annual meeting of the Academy of Osseointegration in Phoenix this week.
"After more than 16 years of function, all surviving implants were still supporting a functional single crown," reported Melissa Dierens, DDS, of the Department of Periodontology and Oral Implantology at University Hospital of Ghent in Belgium.
Although titanium dental implants have been used for single tooth replacement since the late 1980s, few long-term studies have been available about their success, Dr. Dierens and her team noted. The mean follow-up of the patient group that Dr. Dierens clinically investigated was 18.4 years. She found that dental implants had failed in only two of 50 patients who received 62 implants.
In 75% of cases, the original crown was still in place, Dr. Dierens noted.
"The main reason to renew a crown was aesthetically driven rather than because of technical failure," she said.
