Abstract
Objective:
To assess the impact of microgrooved abutments and the insertion depth on crestal bone changes at titanium implants with platform switch.
Material and methods:
A total of n = 3 titanium implants (conical abutment connection) were inserted in each hemimandible of n = 6 foxhounds with the implant shoulder (IS) located at either epicrestal, supracrestal (+1 mm), or subcrestal (−1 mm) positions and randomly (split-mouth design) connected with machined or partially microgrooved healing abutments. At 20 weeks, tissue biopsies were processed for histological (primary outcome: net bone loss – NET) analyses.
Results:
Subcrestal positioning of IS tended to be associated with higher mean NET values (mm) at both machined (subcrestal [−0.72 ± 0.32] > epicrestal [−0.34 ± 0.21] > supracrestal [+0.20 ± 0.64]) and microgrooved (subcrestal [−0.48 ± 0.25] > epicrestal [−0.13 ± 0.54] > supracrestal [+0.33 ± 0.58]) abutments. However, these differences failed to reach statistical significance.
Conclusion:
The insertion depth may have a direct influence on crestal bone-level changes at both types of abutments investigated.
