Short implants in maxillary and mandibular rehabilitations : interim results (6 to 42 months) of a prospective study

Abstract The aim of this single-cohort study was to evaluate clinical survival and success of partial rehabilitations supported by reduced length implants in maxilla and mandible.Fifty-three implants shorter than 10 mm were placed in 41 patients. Before surgery the mean residual bone height was 6.21 ± 1.05 mm in the maxilla and 10.73 ± 1.63 mm in the mandible. The prosthetic phase occurred 3 and 5 months after implant placement for the mandible and maxilla, respectively. After one year of prosthetic loading no implant had failed. At the same time the mean peri-implant bone loss was 0.69 ± 0.24 mm for maxillary implants (n=25) and 0.73 ± 0.23 mm for mandibular ones (n=20) without a significant difference between the two jaws. Peri-implant bone loss around single-tooth and splinted implants was not significantly different. No complications were recorded throughout the study.Despite the limitations of this study concerning study design and sample size, short implants may be considered effective in supporting partial rehabilitations in both maxilla and mandible.More well-designed studies, with larger sample size and longer follow-up duration are needed to validate the use of short implants.