25 September 2019

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Is Implant cantilevered fixed dental prostheses a successful treatment in partially edentulous?

Co-authors: Storelli S, Del Fabbro M, Scanferla M, Romeo E

Giulia Palandrani

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Implant placement can be limited by anatomical conditions that may be overcome with different solutions: reduced dimension implants, bone regeneration procedures or different prosthetic designs. One of the prosthetic solutions is the use of cantilevered prostheses. This is an option in areas with an unfavorable anatomy, or in patients that have limited financial means to afford complex treatments. The major risk in this type of rehabilitations is biomechanical, in fact the occlusal overload can lead to implant and/or prosthetic failure.  

In this systematic review, divided in two parts and pulished in November 2018 on the Cinical Oral Implants Research, the focused question was: “In what clinical situations and with what implant systems are cantilevers a successful treatment modality?” 

 RESULTS 
In the part I of this systematic review after an electronic search a total of nine papers were selected for partially edentulous patients. The estimated survival rate for 5–10 years was calculated to be 98.4% for the implants and 99.2% for the rehabilitations. Mechanical, technical and biological complications were reported with a cumulative 5–10 years complication rate of 28.66% and 26.57% for the patients and for the prosthesis, respectively. For single implant supporting 2-unit cantilever only two papers were included, therefore it was not possible to draw conclusions.   

CONCLUSIONS
Based on these results it is possible to acknowledge the use of cantilevered rehabilitations in partially edentulous patients. Implant cantilevered fixed dental prosthesis appear to have a high survival rate in partially edentulous patients. Conversely single implant supporting 2-unit cantilever appear to have scarce evidence concerning the survival and rate of complications.

For additional informations:
Implant‐supported cantilevered fixed dental rehabilitations in fully edentulous patients: Systematic review of the literature. Part II