Dental Implants - New Horizons in Diagnosis and Treatment Planning

The major difficulties associated with dental implant placement are related to inadequate quantity and quality of available bone at the proposed implant site. Placement of implant in sites with inadequate bone may cause complications such as impingement on vital anatomic structures such as the mandibular canal and neurovascular bundle, and perforation of cortical plates by implant threads.

In an effort to overcome such anatomic problems, a short implant may be required and could be too short to sustain the occlusal loads to which the resulting prosthesis will be subjected. Normal bone, and especially bone of poor quality, placed under such levels of functional loading mayresult in microfractures of the bone adjacent to the imnplant. This in turn can result in loss of osseointegration.

Furthermore, when implants are placed in bone of poor quality, they often lack adequate initial stability. Micromovement of the implant of as little as 100 microns causes a fibrous rather than bony union, producing an increased incidence of short- or long-term implant failure.

Click this link to read more about techniques to ensure implant success.