Long‐term follow‐up of single crowns supported by short, moderately rough implants—A prospective 10‐year cohort study

Objectives To evaluate prospectively the clinical and radiographic outcomes after ten years of short (6 mm) implants with a moderately rough surface supporting single crowns in the posterior region. Material and Methods Forty 6 mm modified sandblasted large‐grit acid‐etched (mod‐SLA), soft tissue level implants were installed in the distal segments of 35 consecutive patients. After 6 weeks of healing, abutments were tightened, and single porcelain‐fused‐to‐metal crowns were cemented. Implant survival, marginal bone loss, and clinical crown/implant ratio were evaluated at various time intervals up to 10 years after loading. Results Two out of the 40 implants were lost before loading, one implant was lost after 7 years because of peri‐implantitis. One patient with two implants died and was excluded from analysis. Two patients did not come at the 10‐year follow‐up and were considered as drop out (2 implants). The survival rate was 91.7% (n = 36). Thirty‐three implants were available for marginal bone loss evaluation. A mean marginal bone loss after 10 years of function was 0.8 ± 0.7 mm. Between 5 and 10 years, the loss was 0.2 ± 0.4 mm. No technical complications were registered during the 10‐year period. The clinical crown/implant ratio increased with time from 1.6 at the delivery of the prosthesis to 2.0 after 10 years of loading with no increase between 5 and 10 years. Conclusion Short (6 mm) implants with a moderately rough surface supporting single crowns in the posterior region and loaded after 6–7 weeks maintained full function for at least 10 years with low marginal bone resorption.