EVALUATION OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF A TECHNIQUE TO PREVENT SCREW LOOSENING

Statement of problem. Abutment screw loosening of single and multiple fixed partial dentures attached to external hexagonal implants is comm only encountered. Purpose. A technique that has been reported to preve nt abutment screw loosening was tested with cyclic loading to determin e its effectiveness. Material and methods. A sample using identical co mponents and test protocol, with the abutment screw tightened to 20 Nc m, was used as control. Results. On the basis of the data obtained, th e recommended technique does not increase resistance to screw loosenin g. The control sample sustained a mean number of cycles to screw loose ning of more than twice that of the technique evaluated.