A METAANALYSIS OF IMPLANTS IN PARTIAL EDENTULISM

A meta-analytic technique was used to estimate the survival of implant s supporting bridges or single crowns in partially edentulous patients . A survey of the literature revealed 66 studies, published between 19 86 and 1996. Nine studies on single implants and 10 studies on fixed p artial dentures met the inclusion criteria for the meta-analysis, Data from a total of 2686 implants, 570 single crowns (SC) and 2116 in fix ed partial dentures (FPD), were analyzed. In order to calculate annual survival rates for individual studies a life-table analysis was condu cted. Maximum follow-up time ranged between 1 and 8 years. After 1 yea r the success rate was calculated to be at least 85.7% for FPD and 97. 2% for SC, When the results from the FPD studies were pooled the survi val rate was 93.6% after 6-7 years. The corresponding value for SC was 97.5%.