TRIP

Trial suggests no difference at 3 years in failure rates between implants that were loaded immediately or early

The Dental Elf, 2012

Trial suggests no difference at 3 years in failure rates between implants that were loaded immediately or early » The Dental Elf
The traditional approach to placing dental implants was to submerge them and keep them load-free for 3–8 months to minimize the risk of implant failures.
 During the healing phase temporary prosthesis are often used and patients can find these uncomfortable.
Consequently shorter healing periods without jeopardizing implant success would be beneficial.   Nowadays immediate and early loaded implants are commonly used and a Cochrane review in 2009 ( Espositio et a l) found no statistical difference between these two approaches and called for more well designed randomised controlled trials.
  The aim of this trial was to compare immediate versus early non-occlusal loading of dental implants placed flapless in a 3-year, parallel group.
Patients were randomised to either the  immediately loaded group ( n=30)  or  the early loaded group ( n=30).
The outcomes were prosthesis failure, implant failure, biological or prosthetic complications and peri implant marginal bone level.
The null hypothesis of no difference in failure rates, complications and bone level between implants that were loaded immediately or early at 3 years cannot be rejected in this randomized clinical trial.
Twelve trials compared immediate versus conventional loading, three early versus conventional loading, six immediate versus early loading, and one occlusally versus non-occlusally loaded implants.
It is possible to successfully load dental implants immediately or early after their placement in selected patients, though not all clinicians may achieve optimal results.
Trends suggest that immediately loaded implants fail more often than those conventionally loaded, but less commonly than those loaded early.