Long-term radiographic assessment of titanium implants installed in maxillary areas grafted with autogenous bone blocks using two predefined sets of success criteria.

Purpose: Assess the radiographic peri-implant bone loss of implants installed in maxillary areas grafted with autogenous bone and classify the long-term (at least >4 ≤ 6 years) implant success according to two predefined sets of criteria.

Material And Methods: Sixty patients had full maxillary alveolar reconstructions using autogenous bone grafts (iliac crest), and 369 titanium implants were installed. The follow-up protocol was 5 (>4 ≤ 6) years; thereafter only patients who presented significant peri-implant bone loss were followed up to 12 years. The radiographic peri-implant bone level was assessed on panoramic radiographs in relation to the baseline and used to classify the long-term success of the implants according to the predefined success criteria presented by Albrektsson and coworkers (ALB; 1986) and the Pisa Consensus Conference (PCC; 2007).

Results: Fifteen implants were lost over the 12-year follow-up period (two up to >4 ≤ 6 years). Mean radiographic peri-implant bone loss was 2.7 mm at the >4 ≤ 6 years control and 4.2 mm after >11 ≤ 12 years. Different success criteria resulted in different types of prevalence of implants classified as "failures." At >4 ≤ 6 years, 48% of the implants would be "failures" according to ALB, while according to the PCC, only 0.8% would be "failures" and 18.1% would be classified as "compromised survival" and 44.8% as "satisfactory survival."

Conclusions: Mean peri-implant bone loss of implants installed in maxillary areas grafted with autogenous bone blocks was 2.7 mm after >4 ≤ 6 years, and two implants were lost during this period. The use of different success criteria significantly altered the prevalence of implants classified as "failure."