Effect of the Drilling Technique on Heat Generation During Osteotomy Preparation for Wide-Diameter Implants.

OBJECTIVES: To test the hypothesis that there would be no difference in heat generation by reducing the number of drills during the implant site preparation relative to conventional drilling sequence. METHODS: A total of 80 implant site preparations with 2 different diameters (5.6 and 6.2 mm) were performed on bovine ribs. Within the same diameter group, half of the preparations were performed by a simplified drilling procedure (pilot drill + final diameter drill) and the other half using the conventional drilling protocol, where multiple drills of increasing diameter were utilized. Heat production by different drilling techniques was evaluated by measuring the bone temperature using K-type thermocouple and a sensitive thermometer before and after each drill. RESULTS: Mean for maximum temperature increase during site preparation of the 5.6- and 6.2-mm implants was 2.20 degrees C, and it was 2.55 degrees C when the site was prepared by the simplified procedure, whereas it was 2.80 degrees C and 2.95 degrees C for the sites prepared by the conventional technique, respectively. No significant difference in temperature increase was found when implants of the 2 chosen diameters were prepared either by the conventional or simplified drilling procedure. CONCLUSIONS: The simplified drilling protocol produces similar amount of heat comparable to the conventional technique, which proved the initial hypothesis.