Effect of one-piece implant diameter on clinical outcome

One-piece implants incorporate the trans-mucosal abutment facing the soft tissues as an integral part of the implant. The interface between the trans-mucosal component and the implant is generally located in the neighbourhood of the alveolar bone level. One-piece implant are usually welded together and immediately loaded. Since no report is available on the effect of fixture diameter on clinical outcome, a retrospective study was performed. Nineteen patients (10 females and 9 males) with a median age of 62 years (min-max 43-80) were enrolled. The mean follow-up was 7 months. A total of 176 one-piece implants (Diamond, BIOIMPLANT, Milan, Italy) were inserted. Implant' diameter was narrower than 4 mm, equal to 4 mm and wider than 4 mm in 12, 97 and 67 fixtures, respectively. Pearson Chi-Square test was used to detect if implant diameter has an impact both on failures (SVR, i.e. lost fixtures) and/or on success (SCR, i.e. crestal bone resorption around implants lower than 1.5 mm). In our series SVR and SCR were 93.75 and 97.57, respectively. Statistical analysis demonstrated that diameter has no direct impact on survival (i.e. lost implants) as well as on clinical success (i.e. crestal bone resorption). In conclusion one-piece implants are reliable devices for oral rehabilitation (since they have a SVR = 93.75 and a SCR = 97.57) and implant diameter does not have statistically significant impact on implant failures and crestal bone resorption