A ten-year clinical follow-up study of prosthetic rehabilitation of the edentulous lower jaw with endosteal dental implants

This paper reports on 10 years of clinical experience with implant prosthod ontic treatment of total edentulism. During this period, of the 735 implant s that were inserted, only 19 were lost, a 97.4% success rate. The authors believe that evaluating the success of implant treatment requires examining the health of the peripilastrium with periodontologic methods. The indices the authors used for such an evaluation were plaque accumulation, crevicul ar fluid flow rate, and sulcus bleeding; crevicular fluid flow proved the m ost satisfactory for estimating the health of periimplant tissues. The resu lts demonstrate that periimplant-tissue health is similar to that of the ti ssues surrounding nontreated natural teeth and better than that of the tiss ues surrounding natural teeth wearing crowns.