Long-term follow-up of dental single implants under immediate

Objective: To evaluate the success of osseointegrated implants under immediate prosthetic and orthodontic forces after a follow-up period of at least 2 years. Materials and Methods: The sample included 20 titanium implants which were used as orthodontic and prosthetic anchorage of immediately loaded single-crowns on a total of 13 patients. A 40 N initial torque was considered the minimum for inclusion in the sample. All implants received screwed provisional crowns immediately after surgery. The implants were randomly divided into two groups: the control group (9 implants) and the immediate orthodontic loading group (11 implants). A healing period of 4 months was observed before orthodontic loads were applied to the control group implants. For the immediate orthodontic loading group, orthodontic forces were applied within 24 hours. The maximum orthodontic force applied in both groups was 200 g. After 6 months of orthodontic movement, clinical and radiographic evaluations were obtained. Implants were considered successful when favorable results were obtained in all evaluations. Results: After a 2-year follow-up, the success rates were 90.9% and 88.9%, respectively, in the orthodontic loading group and the control group. Each group had one failure. Conclusion: Shortening the healing period for the application of orthodontic forces did not seem to affect the success of osseointegrated implants used as anchorage. (Angle Orthod. 2010;80:807-811.)