Satisfaction and Clinical Outcomes Among Patients with Immediately Loaded Mandibular Overdentures Supported by One or Two Dental Implants: Results of a 5-Year Prospective Randomized Clinical Trial.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate patient satisfaction and clinical outcomes among subjects with mandibular overdentures supported by one or two immediately placed dental implants 5 years after loading.

Materials And Methods: Thirty-six subjects (16 men and 20 women) received one or two dental implants in the anterior mandible, and all implants were loaded the day of surgery. Subjects were scheduled for follow-up 3-, 6-, and 12 months after implant placement and thereafter annually for 4 more years. Patient satisfaction scores were measured with the Oral Health Impact Profile-EDENT (OHIPEDENT) questionnaire.

Results: Seventeen subjects (7 male and 10 female) with a mean age of 59.4 years (range, 44 to 74 years) were available for the 5-year follow-up examination. Nine subjects with 10 failing implants were excluded during the first year and nine subjects were lost to follow-up. No implants failed between the 12- and 60-month follow-up examinations, and the need for denture maintenance was low. Mean peri-implant bone change was 0.92 mm, and the Spearman test failed to show correlation between the insertion torque value and implant stability quotient. Patient satisfaction scores increased significantly when compared with baseline values and continued to be high for both groups, with no significant differences.

Conclusion: Ten implants in nine subjects failed early, but no failures were observed after the 12-month examination. No significant differences were found between subjects in the two groups with respect to implant survival rates and peri-implant bone loss, and patient satisfaction scores continued to be high. Although patient satisfaction and implant success were high during the 12- to 60-month period, the results should be interpreted with caution because of the high number of failing implants and patients lost to follow-up. More research is needed to study outcomes of treatment with immediately loaded mandibular implant overdentures.