Effect of dental implantation on the hard and soft tissues around the adjacent natural teeth.

BACKGROUND: Dental implantation has become widespread for esthetic and functional rehabilitation following single tooth loss as a preferred alternative to conventional tooth-supported restorations. The main advantage of dental implant placement is that it does not require the preparation of the adjacent sound teeth. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this cohort study was to assess the effect of dental implantation on the hard and soft tissues around the adjacent natural teeth. MATERIAL AND METHODS: In this historical cohort, 34 'connect-type' TBR(R) implants (bone level), 4 mm in diameter, were submerged in the intact bone of 22 patients (7 males and 15 females). The intraoral and extraoral clinical examination as well as periapical radiography were carried out preoperatively or right after surgery (baseline), at 3 months postoperatively (the time of prosthetic delivery), and at 3 and 6 months after prosthetic delivery. The data was analyzed using the Friedman test (due to the non-normal distribution of the data). In case of presence of a significant difference, pairwise comparisons were performed using the post-hoc Wilcoxon test with the Bonferroni correction. All statistical analyses were performed with a 95% confidence interval (CI) using the SPSS for Windows, v. 16.0 software. The p‑value <0.05 was considered statistically significant. RESULTS: The distance from the cementoenamel junction (CEJ) of the adjacent teeth to the bone crest significantly increased at different postoperative time points compared to baseline (p < 0.001). The changes in the papillae of the adjacent teeth were also significant at different postoperative time points (p = 0.04). The pocket depth of the adjacent teeth increased, although the value at 3 months postoperatively was not significantly different from the baseline value (p = 0.842). The distance from the implant shoulder to the bone crest of the adjacent teeth significantly increased at different postoperative time points compared to baseline (p < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Our results indicate that implant surgery significantly affects the soft and hard tissues around the adjacent natural teeth.