Flapless implantology Comperisonof peri-implant bone loss

At 3 months (from stage 1 to stage 2 surgeries), the submerged implants had significantly higher peri-implant bone levels than the nonsubmerged implants. These results suggest that when implants are submerged with mini-incision surgery, the bone height around the implants in the early phase after implant placement is significantly greater than when the implants are not submerged.

The peri-implant bone levels for the soft tissue punch and mini-incision approaches were also compared from stage1 surgery to 5 months. After 3 months, second-stage surgery and transmucosal abutment attachment was performed for the implants that had been submerged using the mini-incision technique. The changes in the crestal bone were evaluated after a 2-month healing period (5 months after stage 1 surgery). With respect to differences between the soft tissue punch and mini-incision procedures, there were no significant changes in the peri-implant bone levels during the healing period. With the mini-incision submerged implants, there was no bone loss around the implants within the osseointegration period between the stage I and II surgeries.

However, a small amount of bone resorption was observed after re-entry surgery and attachment of the transmucosal abutment. With the soft tissue punch nonsubmerged implants, a small amount of bone loss occurred immediately after implant placement, which than stabilized.