Is the osseointegration of immediately and delayed loaded implants the same?--comparison of the implant stability during a 3-month healing period in a prospective study.

OBJECTIVES

The objectives of the present study were (1) to compare the stability of delayed loaded (DL) and immediately loaded (IL) ITI SLA implants during the first 3 months of the healing period using resonance frequency analysis (RFA) and (2) to determine the factors that affect implant stability during the healing period.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

To compare implant stability, RFA was performed on two groups of patients (12 patients received 25 IL implants and 47 patients received 79 DL implants) with a total 104 ITI SLA implants. Implant stability was measured directly by RFA at implant placement and consecutively once a week for 12 weeks. Statistical analyses were carried out to study implant stability differences between IL and DL groups.

RESULTS

One of the 25 implants in the IL group failed, and no implant was lost in the DL group. Implant stability between the IL and DL groups showed a statistically significant difference (P<0.05). The mean implant stability quotient of all measured implants from implant insertion to 12 weeks was 72.88 +/- 5.39 for the DL and 75.86 +/- 3.60 for the IL types. The lowest stability was at 4 weeks for DL implants (mean: 71.58 +/- 5.11) and 2 weeks for IL implants (mean: 71.33 +/- 2.97). In both groups, bone types I and II showed higher implant stability than bone type III (P<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

The findings of this study indicate that differences in osseointegration between IL and DL implants may be predicted according to differential implant stability.