Clinical prognosis of single implant mesiodistal cantilevered prosthesis: A retrospective clinical study

Abstract

Objective: This study aims to evaluate the prognosis of single cantilevered restoration, of which the cantilever length is less than 6 mm, retrospectively. Methods: This study targeted 33 patients (20 males, 13 females) who were treated with total 35 single cantilevered restorations (mesial direction or distal direction) combined with implant installations from May 2004 to December 2012. All of the implant prostheses were single implant-supported and cantilevered(cantilever lengths were over 3 mm). Results: The length of cantilevers ranged from 3.01 mm to 5.99 mm. All implants survived during the average of 47.72 months of observation period. The success rate of implants was 94.29%. The complications were peri-implantitis (8.57%) with symptoms such as swelling and bleeding and prosthetic complications (22.9%) such as screw loosening, abutment hex fracture, screw locking, and crown fracture. There was an average of 0.04 +/- 0.14 mm peri-implant alveolar bone loss at 1 year after loading and 0.16 +/- 0.51 mm at final observation. Conclusions: Although single cantilevered restoration shorter than 6 mm does not induce crestal bone loss around the implant, several complications such as peri-implantitis and mechanical complications could still remain. (c) 2017 Asian AOMS, ASOMP, JSOP, JSOMS, JSOM, and JAMI. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.