A RETROSPECTIVE STUDY OF SINTERED POROUS-SURFACED DENTAL IMPLANTS IN RESTORING THE POSTERIOR MAXILLA

Abstract

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to evaluate the feasibility of the outfracture osteotomy sinus graft technique with the evaluation of 5-year survival rate of the implants placed in the atrophic edentulous posterior maxillary area.

Materials and methods: One hundred and thirteen cases of 96 patients who visited our center from Aug 2004 to July 2009 and were diagnosed as atrophic edentulous maxillary alveolar ridge, were selected and underwent augmentation sinus surgery with outfracture osteotomy technique. Feasibility of the outfracture osteotomy technique was investigated with clinical and radiographic evaluation to assess the survival rate of the total dental implants in augmentation sinus surgery of this new kind. Total fixture number available in follow-up period was 179, in which the lost 10 patients were excluded out of 96 patients.

Results: Five-year cumulative survival rate was 97.2% with 5 failures of total 179 fixtures. The average follow-up period was 29 and a half months, with the minimum and maximum follow-up periods of 4 months 21 days and 59 months 14 days, respectively.

Conclusion: Traditional infracture technique is a popular method for an augmentation sinus surgery. The authors modified this classical method by outfracturing and readapting the bony window after sinus graft, with excellent treatment results evidenced by high survival rate of 97.2% (174 out of 179 fixtures), which proves the feasibility of the newly-designed outfracture osteotomy sinus graft technique.