A 10-year follow-up study of titanium dioxide-blasted implants

Background: Dental implants with moderately rough surfaces are commonly used in the treatment of edentulous patients. However, long-term data on survival rates and marginal bone conditions are lacking. Purpose: This prospective study evaluated the cumulative survival rate of the TiOblast(TM) implant (Astra Tech AB, Molndal, Sweden) after 10 years of prosthetic loading. Materials and Methods: A total of 199 TiOblast(TM) implants were placed in 36 consecutive edentulous patients (23 males and 13 females). All patients were treated at one clinic and by the same team. The patients were edentulous in either the maxilla (n = 16) or the mandible (n = 20). The average age of the patients at the start of the trial was 64 years (range, 59-82 years). Of the 199 implants inserted 108 were in the mandible and 91 were in the maxilla. Clinical evaluations were undertaken after completion of the prosthetic superstructure (baseline) and after 6 months, 1 year, 3 years, 5 years, 7 years, and 10 years. Mean marginal bone level was evaluated for the first 100 placed implants for up to 7 years. Results: Six implants failed during the study (3 in the mandible and 3 in the maxilla). All failures occurred within the first year, giving a cumulative survival rate of 96.9% (96.6 % in the maxilla and 97.2 % in the mandible) after 10 years of follow-up. The survival rate for the superstructures was 100%. The mean marginal bone level in the measured sample was 0.2 mm (standard deviation [SD], 0.31) below the reference point at baseline, 0.28 mm (SD, 0.20) and 1.27 mm (SD, 1.15) below the same point 7 years later (mean, 0.15 mm per year). Conclusion: This study showed that titanium dioxide-blasted implants offer predictable long-term results as supports for fixed prostheses in both the maxilla and mandible.