Thanks to a short implant even patients with little bone can, in some cases, undergo immediate loading implant surgery.
When do you opt for a short implant?
A short implant is defined as a dental implant that does not exceed 8 mm in height, a length that allows the screw to be inserted into a very thin jaw bone.
The lack of bone thickness at the dawn of implantology was considered a contraindication for proceeding with surgery. Since then, scientific research in the dental field has made great strides, both in the technology used and in the range of materials used for dental implants.
Today, those who have little bone and want to undergo immediate loading implant surgery have different options for intervention, there are in fact different solutions for patients who have reduced bone thickness.
The main techniques to overcome the lack of bone in implantology are:
- short dental implants;
- zygomatic implantology;
- bone graft.
Short implant and masticatory load
The use of short implants in implantology is very frequent, but the scientific community wondered about their biomechanical stability, raising doubts.
The assumption from which the researchers started is that the short implant, precisely because of its length, could be unstable and therefore lead to a loss of the implant due precisely to the lack of possibility to sustain the masticatory load.
Short system and standard system: comparison stability
With regard to the biomechanical stability of standard implants and short implants, a recent study was published, inserted in the pages of the journal Implant Dentistry, in which a direct comparison was made of short implants and standard implants regarding the masticatory load.
The comparative study has shown that in 83% of the clinical cases taken into consideration for research, the presence of short implants is linked to greater stress than standard implants.
At the same time, however, in 44% of cases it became evident that a short dental implant that has a larger diameter is able to withstand the chewing load more.
Personalized implantology
The best solution for patients with little bone who want to undergo immediate loading implant surgery is the planning of the intervention.
Planning intervention means adapting dental implants to the specific needs of the patient and not vice versa, ie the patient who adapts to the implants.
The implantologist, thanks to his skills and sophisticated technologies, is able to acquire detailed information on the patient’s anatomy, assess the masticatory load, bone thickness and bone porosity.
After putting together all the data, the dentist will opt for the best solution for the specific clinical case, choosing, from a wide range, the type of dental implant, the length, the diameter, the material of the prosthesis.
Choosing a short implant is one of the possible options, not always the best, which in certain cases can prevent the patient from invasive procedures such as bone grafting.
