Immediate Full Occlusal Loading of Dental Implants using Intra-oral Welding Technique Versus Conventional Immediate Loading. A Comparative Split mouth Prospective Clinical Trial

Abstract

Objectives: this study was conducted to compare the clinical and radiographic outcomes of two techniques used to restore immediately loaded dental implants, both of which will implement the concept of full occlusal loading. The first is using “Intra-oral welding” and the second is conventional immediate loading. Patients and methods: In this split mouth study after patients were proven to be eligible for this study, six patients received 24 implants, each patient had posterior partial edentulism on both sides of the same arch and so, the right and left sides were randomly selected to enter either in the test or control side. The test side received two implants to restore the edentulous area that was immediately loaded by intra-oral welding technique and restored with a temporary prosthesis in full occlusal loading. The control side received two implants to the restore the edentulous site and immediately loaded by indexing technique and restored with a temporary prosthesis in full occlusal loading. Implant stability by Resonance frequency analysis and Radiographic assessment through CBCT and periapical radiographs in order to measure bone loss and bone dimensions, were done at baseline, 3 and 6 months’ intervals. Numerical data were explored for normality by checking the distribution of data and using tests of normality (Kolmogorov-Smirnov and Shapiro-Wilk tests). ISQ data showed normal (parametric) distribution while bone width and bone loss data showed non-parametric distribution. Data were presented as mean, standard deviation (SD), 95% Confidence Interval for the mean (95% CI), median and range values. For parametric data; two-way repeated measures ANOVA test was used to compare between the groups as well as to study the changes by time within each group. Bonferroni’s post-hic test was used for pair-wise comparisons. For non-parametric data, Wilcoxon signed-rank test was used to compare between the two groups as well as to study the changes by time in bone width measurements within each group. Friedman’s test was used to study the changes by time in bone loss. The significance level was set at P ≤ 0.05. Statistical analysis was performed with IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows, Version 23.0. Armonk, NY: IBM Corp.