Extra-short implants as effective as regular-length implants with lower biological complications

A new study published in the Official Journal of the Academy of Osseointegration suggests that extra-short implants had less biological problems, required less time for treatment, and had stronger peri-implant bone crest stability than standard-length implants when implanted in grafted regions at various longitudinal follow-up intervals.

Because of its good clinical performance in clinical practice, dental implants have been routinely used to restore edentulous jaws. The presence of sufficient bone and good osseointegration surrounding dental implants is essential for their success. Unfortunately, the inflammation, trauma, or relatively quick bone loss after tooth removal usually causes the vertical bone volume, one of the most important limiting variables for dental implant placement and effective osseointegration, to be insufficient. In order to compare the efficacy of extra-short implants to standard-length implants in graft locations across various longitudinal follow-up intervals, Polianne Alves Mendes and colleagues undertook this study.

The PRISMA guidelines were followed for conducting a systematic review. Without regard to language or time period, searches were made in the LILACS, Cochrane Library, MEDLINE/PubMed, Embase, and gray literature databases. Two independent reviewers carried out the tasks of study selection, risk of bias (Rob 2.0), quality of evidence (GRADE), and data collecting. A third reviewer was brought in to settle disagreements. Using the random-effects model, data were merged.