Evaluating the clinical performance of the Osseotite implant: defining prosthetic predictability.

A 5-year prospective, multicenter study is in progress at four private dental practices to determine the cumulative implant survival rate and prosthetic outcome when using the Osseotite dental implant in posterior maxillary and mandibular areas. An interim evaluation after 34.4 months of study progress is presented. A total of 219 Osseotite implants were placed in 74 patients (34 women and 40 men with a mean age of 57.8 +/- 15.2 years) using a conventional two-stage surgical protocol and 3- to 6-month healing time. Subsequently, patients were restored with fixed or removable restorations. Nineteen of the 74 patients reported smoking an average of 13.2 cigarettes per day. Restorative treatments included 40 single-unit restorations; 53 splinted 2-, 3-, 4-, and 5-unit implant-supported maxillary and mandibular prostheses; 4 full-arch fixed maxillary prostheses; 1 mandibular fixed/detachable hybrid prosthesis; and 1 mandibular overdenture. The mean time from implant placement to second stage surgery was 6.2 +/- 2.0 months; from restoration and implant loading to the most recent follow-up evaluation was 20.9 +/- 6.8 months. Of the 219 implants placed, three posterior maxillary implants developed infections and were removed prior to second stage surgery. No implant failures occurred at second stage surgery or after implant loading. Using the Kaplan-Meier method, the cumulative implant survival rate was 100% for anterior implants and 98.4% for posterior implants at 28.5 +/- 5.7 months. The cumulative postloading implant survival rate was 100% for both anterior and posterior implants. The results of this study indicate that the Osseotite dental implant achieved a high rate of integration that remained stable during nearly 2 years of implant function. In addition, because no postloading implant failures have occurred, the Osseotite implant has provided a high level of prosthetic predictability.