Massimo Simion: Long-term stability of regenerated bone around dental implants

Bone regeneration techniques have evolved over time. An initial development period in the late 1980 and early 1990 years, when basic techniques and principles had been established, was followed after 1996 by a consolidation period where efficacy of the applied techniques and stability of the treatment results were checked and evaluated. After 2005 focus was on simplification of the established techniques and protocols. Supported by long-term observation of clinical case examples and comprehensive literature data dating back to the development phase, Dr Simion explains that the results obtained with these techniques can be considered stable, however questions if and in how far these data and results can be used today in light of the new techniques and procedures. Based on two recent studies, Dr Simion discusses the difference between survival rate and success rate. Sucess rate is lower than survival rate and seems to be associated to the presence of keratinized mucosa. Dr Simion presents a standard method to treat infected sites - raising a flap, cleaning the implant surface with suitable brushes, graft the bone defect and thicken the mucosa with connective tissue graft - and concludes, that the results obtained with these protocols look stable, however we don't know what will happen to the site within the next years.