Survival Rate of Short, Locking Taper Implants with a Plateau Design: A 5-Year Retrospective Study

Background. Short implants have become popular in the reconstruction of jaws, especially in cases with limited bone height. Shorter implants, those with locking tapers and plateau root shapes, tend to have longer survival times. We retrospectively investigated the cumulative survival rates of Bicon short implants (<8 mm) according to patient variables over a 5-year period. Materials and Methods. This study included 111 consecutively treated patients with 371 implants supporting fixed or removable prosthetics. Data were evaluated to acquire cumulative survival rates according to gender, age, tobacco use, surgical procedure, bone quality, and restoration type. Statistics were performed using chi-square, Mann-Whitney, and Kruskal Wallis H tests. Results. The survival rate was 97.3% with, on average, 22.8 months of follow-up. Patients older than 60 years had higher failure rate than the other age groups (P < 0.05). Placed region, age, and bone quality had adverse effects on survival rate in the <8 mm implant group with statistically significant difference (P < 0.05). Conclusions. Approximately 23-month follow-up data indicate that short implants with locking tapers and plateau-type roots have comparable survival rates as other types of dental implants. However, due to limitations of study, these issues remain to be further investigated in future randomized controlled clinical trials.