Crestal bone remodeling around platform switched, immediately loaded implants placed in sites of previous failures.

The possibility to insert immediately-loaded implants in post-extraction sites where previously inserted implants had failed and had never received a prosthesis has not been sufficiently studied to the present day. Only few articles in the literature address this problem. The aim of the present study was to evaluate crestal bone remodeling around implants with a platform-switched design inserted and loaded immediately after the failure of the previous implants. This study has a follow-up of 36 months. Failed implants that had never received a prosthesis have been removed in 68 patients. In the present study 10 patients, whose bone crest measured at least 8 mm in width, were selected and 16 immediatley loaded implants with a platform-switched design and a sandblasted and acid etched SLA surface, (Winsix®, Biosaf srl, Italy) were placed. Statistically significant differences were observed in crestal bone remodeling between 12 and 36 months (p<0,05) and between 24 and 36 months (p<0,001), although no statistically significant differences were found between 12 and 24 months (p>0,05). The values of periodontal indices have sometimes been borderline, although they returned normal later on. The cumulative success-rate of all the 16 implants inserted was of 93,75%, while the survival rate was 100%. Results show that immediately loaded platform-switched implants are a practicable solution for the rehabilitation of sites of early failed implants.