A prospective study of treatment of severely resorbed maxillae with narrow nonsubmerged implants: results after 1 year of loading.

The aim of the present study was to evaluate the use of reduced-diameter implants as an alternative to bone grafting for treatment of patients with severely resorbed maxillae. Forty patients (25 females, 15 males, mean age of 57 years, range 19 to 86) with insufficient bone volume for placement of standard-size implants in the maxilla (31 totally edentulous) were treated with 3.3-mm-diameter implants (ITI, titanium plasma-sprayed solid screws). Augmentation was considered for all patients because of lack of sufficient bone volume. Preoperative radiographic examination showed that in all cases, the height of the alveolar crest with a width of 4 mm was less than 10 mm. A total of 182 implants with a length of 8 to 12 mm were placed. All but 3 patients planned for overdenture treatment received fixed prostheses or single crowns (n = 3). One implant (8 mm long) was lost 1 month after placement, providing a survival rate of 99.4% after 1 year of loading. Since 4 implants with peri-implantitis were successfully treated and 1 implant left as a "sleeper" because of malposition, the cumulative success rate was 96.4%. The mean marginal bone resorption at baseline was 0.14 +/- 0.67 mm (range 0 to 6 mm). After 1 year of loading the mean resorption was 0.35 +/- 1.05 mm (range 0 to 7 mm); 4.8% of the implants had marginal bone resorption of more than 2 mm.