Assessment Of Outcomes Of Immediately Loaded Dental Implants In Orofacial Cleft Patients

Abstract

newlineMissing or non-salvageable permanent teeth in the defect site is the most common dental anomaly seen in asyndromic cleft patients. This missing tooth alters patient s esthetics and speech functionality, affecting their psychological development and self-confidence, especially for individuals between 18 to 30 years of age. Thus, the current study was undertaken to check if asyndromic cleft patients can be successfully rehabilitated using immediately loaded dental implants. newlineIn the current study, 30 unilateral or bilateral asyndromic cleft defect patients were enrolled with missing permanent lateral incisor in the defect site. All patients had positive history of undergoing secondary alveolar bone grafting during mixed dentition stage but presented with deficient bone prior to dental rehabilitation thereby requiring tertiary alveolar bone grafting done using either autologous iliac or symphyseal graft. After a healing period of six months, the site was rehabilitated using dental implants which were immediately loaded after recording of implant stability quotient (ISQ). Three months later, implants showing mobility with or without pain/ tenderness, suppuration, and bleeding on probing were considered failure while for the remaining implants these parameters along with recording of plaque and gingival index, probing depth, width of keratinized gingiva, and threedimensional cone beam computed tomography (CBCT) recordings were done as baseline parameters. Nine months from implant placement, these parameters were reassessed to determine implant success. newlineFive cases showed graft failure and thus dental implant could not be placed. Seven implants showed signs of mobility at or prior to three months post placement and were considered implant failure. The remaining 18 implants showed no clinical signs of failure with marginal bone loss recorded using CBCT well within the permissible limits and progressive increase in ISQ values thereby giving a success rate of 75%. newlineThis study highlighted the importance of func