Changes of trends in the size of the dental implants in recent years Part 1. The role of short implants in dental implantology The literature review.

The requirements for osseointegration have been determined decades ago, among which was the appropriate size of the dental implants. In the last few years, in both - domestic and foreign literature- we can find more and more articles suggesting short and narrow dental implants as a treatment possibility. They may serve as an alternative to various bone grafting techniques and may replace the time demanding, more invasive and expensive horizontal and vertical bone augmentation procedures. Using short and narrow implants we can avoid interventions often accompanied by serious complications, such as bone distraction and inferior alveolar nerve transposition which pose greater risk for the patient. Our objective is a two-part review of the periodic literature in order to establish whether short and narrow dental implants can serve as a real alternative treatment modality.