Archive & Observations
Recent publications from the prosthodontic, restorative and implant dentistry literature — reviewed for clinical relevance.
Showing all 185 reviews
Imaemporn and colleagues milled 80 strength-gradient multilayer zirconia crowns from four depths within the same KATANA YML disc, with and without simulated five-year ageing, finding crowns cut from the lower, stronger region resisted significantly higher fracture forces and failed in milder modes than those from the translucent top — though every group still survived well beyond physiological bite force.
Fernández and colleagues systematically review 28 studies on short fibre-reinforced composites in large posterior and endodontically treated teeth, finding consistently higher fracture resistance and more repairable failure patterns in the laboratory, but no clear clinical superiority over conventional composite across follow-ups of up to four years.
Musharbash and colleagues measured how saliva contamination and four cleaning protocols affect resin bond strength to zirconia, finding airborne-particle abrasion strongest immediately but the chemical cleaners Ivoclean, ZirClean, and Katana Cleaner statistically equivalent after thermocycling, while a merely-rinsed contaminated surface was far weaker than all of them.
A Spanish Society of Periodontology (SEPA) expert consensus consolidates surgical and prosthetic design factors — emergence angle, abutment height, retention choice, splinting, and material cleansability — into an integrated upstream ruleset, finding that roughly 78% of peri-implantitis cases involve inadequate hygiene access driven by prosthetic design.
Chung and colleagues compare seven surgical-guide sleeve designs. Closed sleeves produced smaller placement errors, but every design remained within a modest laboratory range.
Dias and colleagues map 28 systematic reviews of immediate implant placement and restoration. The evidence supports selected single anterior sites far more confidently than posterior or multi-unit treatment.
Sen and colleagues map 2,031 Web of Science papers on immediate implant placement and loading, identifying topic clusters around aesthetic-zone provisionalisation, osseointegration, socket preservation, augmentation, complications, and quality of life.
Ye and colleagues review 11 randomised trials comparing one- and two-implant mandibular overdentures, finding no clear disadvantage for single implants in marginal bone loss or common prosthetic complications, with implant-failure results that deserve careful wording.
Cabrera and Fernandes report a rare 37-year follow-up after connective tissue grafting for maxillary gingival recession, showing durable root coverage with a measured 1.5 mm relapse and a pointed reminder about thin periodontal phenotype.
Tartsch and colleagues report 98.2% effective survival for two-piece zirconia implants over a mean 39.1-month follow-up, offering useful mid-term evidence for metal-free implant therapy while keeping fracture risk and study design firmly in view.
A clinical digital workflow study found that increasing occlusal vertical dimension changed the spatial position of occlusal contacts, while virtual facebow use did not substantially reduce those deviations.
An in vitro study found whitening toothpaste composition changed composite roughness, microhardness, and staining behaviour, with charcoal toothpaste performing worst for colour and surface hardness.
Hyldahl and colleagues review implant survival across autoimmune diseases: bullous disease, rheumatoid arthritis and lupus look more reassuring, while oral lichen planus flare-up and Crohn's disease carry sharper warnings.
Isler and colleagues report 7-year follow-up from a randomised clinical trial of peri-implantitis reconstructive therapy, finding limited long-term success despite early improvements.
Kohal and colleagues report 5-year outcomes for ZiUnite one-piece 3Y-TZP zirconia implants supporting three-unit fixed dental prostheses, with only 66.67% cumulative implant survival.
Elgarba and colleagues test an AI-driven tool for posterior mandibular implant planning and find expert-level acceptability, faster planning, and far less variability than human planning.
Gao and colleagues compare first-molar-only implant restoration with restoring both first and second molars, finding similar survival and chewing outcomes with lower cost and less peri-implant disease in the first-molar-only group.
Gill and colleagues use a mandibular minipig overpreparation model to test whether implants can osseointegrate despite near-absent primary stability, finding 100% survival under submerged, controlled healing.
A retrospective study of 569 anterior fixed prostheses found complications were less about material mythology and more about hygiene, support type, and prosthesis design.
An in vitro comparison of five 3D-printed permanent crown resins against milled Vita Enamic found that material choice mattered more than the broad additive-versus-subtractive label, with Saremco Crowntec showing the best internal and marginal fit while Vita Enamic produced the highest external accuracy.
A retrospective comparison of customised CAD/CAM titanium mesh and screw tent-pole grafting found comparable ridge gain, stable 5-year peri-implant marginal bone levels, and 100% implant survival, with the titanium mesh workflow shortening mean operative time by about 10 minutes.
A 5-year retrospective study of posterior implant-supported fixed prostheses found that intentionally light occlusion did not remain stable over time and did not produce superior marginal bone, proximal contact, or technical-complication outcomes compared with non-light occlusion.
Eight reviews on this site, set against a lithium disilicate benchmark, show zirconia is a reliable long-term restorative material — 100% crown survival at 5 years, durable resin-bonded bridges, real quality-of-life gains. As an implant, and as a 'biocompatible' brand, the verdict splits entirely on the system and the surface, not the word zirconia.
Nine reviews on this site, including a 468,000-implant cohort and a smoking meta-analysis, point the same way: implant failure is patient-level and multifactorial, not site-level or single-cause. Periodontitis history and prior failure persist under adjustment; smoking, diabetes and feared drug labels repeatedly shrink once you control for everything else.
An in vitro study by Medina-Madrid and colleagues placed parallel-walled and tapered implants in polyurethane blocks simulating D2 and D3 bone density, then created progressive peri-implant defects — finding that macrodesign makes no measurable difference to resonance frequency analysis stability scores until bone loss reaches two-thirds of implant length, at which point tapered implants lose substantially more stability than their parallel-walled counterparts.
Seven reviews on this site agree on an uncomfortable premise: a featureless edentulous arch starves the stitching algorithm, and intraoral scanning alone is not yet accurate enough for full-arch implant frameworks. Photogrammetry wins the meta-analyses, but the more useful finding is that accuracy is a system property — scanner, scan-body geometry and library file decide it together.
Eight reviews on this site converge on a number — keep the implant-crown emergence angle modest — and then immediately complicate it. A canine histology study finds a dose-response above 40°; two clinical studies find no angle effect at all once the abutment is customised or the collar is laser-textured. The angle is a real risk, but a conditional one.
Across seven reviews on this site — a 1,683-implant analytical review, two bench studies, a split-mouth trial and three meta-analyses — short and narrow implants survive at rates close to conventional fixtures. The catch is consistent: the failure moves off the bone and onto the prosthetic hardware, and splinting is the single most reliable lever.
An in vitro study by Moon, Choi, Oh, Sun, and Kim at Yonsei University tests nine scan body geometries across two library types and finds that a 4 mm scan body can register as reliably as a 6 mm one, provided the flat indexing surface stays around 1 mm and the software uses a truncated rather than full-geometry library file.
A randomised controlled trial by Ragucci and colleagues found that customised healing abutments reduced mean marginal bone loss to 0.51 mm at 12 months compared to 1.34 mm with conventional cylindrical abutments in immediately placed molar implants — a statistically significant difference that points to a comparatively simple modification with meaningful biological consequences.
An in vitro chewing simulator study from Prince of Songkla University finds that 3D-printed methacrylate-based resin denture teeth wear significantly less than prefabricated or milled acrylic alternatives under 120,000 simulated chewing cycles — but the single unfilled resin tested and the absence of thermocycling limit how far these results generalise.
A case report from Queiroz et al. describes replacing titanium temporary cylinders with 3D-printed resin components bonded directly to multi-unit abutments in a fully guided dual-arch All-On-X reconstruction, completing surgery and prosthetic delivery in four hours — addressing a well-documented failure point at the resin-to-titanium interface.
A randomised crossover trial comparing mucostatic digital complete dentures (intraoral scanner, DLP printing) with conventional selective-pressure impression dentures found significantly higher patient satisfaction with the digital method across comfort, confidence, chewing, aesthetics, and overall satisfaction — while OHIP-14 quality-of-life scores showed no difference between the two.
Dellacasa and colleagues followed 112 implants for at least 5 years and found that wider prosthetic emergence angles were not significantly associated with marginal bone loss when customised abutments were used.
The first global consensus on rehabilitating the edentulous maxilla produces 14 clinical recommendations — six reaching consensus, eight achieving strong consensus — covering every stage from patient selection to maintenance, for conventional dentures, implant overdentures, and fixed implant-supported prostheses.
Pabst et al. survey 276 oral and maxillofacial surgeons in Germany, revealing the gap between evidence-based ideals and real-world implant practice patterns.
A dual-centre retrospective study finds that adjunctive systemic azithromycin added to non-surgical debridement produces meaningful pocket depth reduction and radiographic bone gain in peri-implantitis cases with intrabony defects. Here's what the numbers mean for your clinic.
A prospective study of 150 patients finds that a deep neural network combined with grey relational analysis achieves 93.2% shade matching accuracy for anterior restorations — outperforming both visual assessment and spectrophotometry alone.
An 8-year randomised controlled trial from the University of Ljubljana finds that nanostructured alumina coating (NAC) and airborne-particle abrasion (APA) produce statistically identical retention rates for cantilevered zirconia resin-bonded fixed dental prostheses — 88.4% vs 89.1% — with NAC offering a non-damaging alternative for increasingly translucent zirconia materials.
A novel transformer-based implicit neural network reconstructs missing tooth morphology across molars, premolars, and incisors with high dimensional accuracy — matching original crowns more closely than an experienced technician in some dimensions.
Gallucci and colleagues synthesised 140 studies and 10,456 implants, showing that several placement/loading combinations are now scientifically and clinically validated while early loading remains the shakier corner of the map.
A major systematic review and meta-analysis of 44 studies finds cigarette smokers face 60% lower odds of implant survival and 0.64 mm additional crestal bone loss, while evidence on e-cigarettes and vaping remains virtually nonexistent.
Hongseok An at Oregon Health & Science University outlines four distinct shade-masking strategies for CAD-CAM ceramic restorations on discoloured teeth, from opaque monolithic zirconia with external staining to a bi-layered zirconia-lithium disilicate 'CAD-on' construction, each balancing masking power against the illusion of translucency.
Hwang and colleagues studied 1,694 implants in post-menopausal women and found similar implant survival among bisphosphonate, denosumab, and control groups, while reinforcing the need for individualised medical risk planning.
A 10-year prospective multicentre study on the Straumann PURE Ceramic implant with a sandblasted, large-grit, acid-etched (ZLA) surface reports 97.7% survival and 91.4% success — results comparable to titanium benchmarks and in striking contrast to other one-piece zirconia systems.
While the 1st Global Consensus for Clinical Guidelines (GCCG) reached clear agreement on surgical and augmentation questions for the edentulous maxilla — as covered in the companion Fiorellini consensus report — this companion survey by Schoenbaum and colleagues found that the prosthetic planning variables (implant number, timing, and loading) told a different story: 117 experts from 42 countries, and strong consensus on precisely nothing.
Doliveux and colleagues show that 95% of guided immediate implants in the anterior maxilla deviate buccally, and that planning outside the socket's long axis makes it significantly worse.
A systematic review finds that maxillary full-arch fixed prostheses deliver high survival rates and patient satisfaction regardless of implant number — but direct comparative evidence remains surprisingly thin.
The 1st Global Consensus for Clinical Guidelines on edentulous maxilla rehabilitation has formalised expert agreement on CBCT imaging, membrane fixation, soft tissue augmentation, and sinus membrane perforation management — giving clinicians a practical, evidence-backed playbook for full-arch implant cases.
Salih et al. show that vertical (90°) build orientation produces DLP-printed implant surgical guides with 40–110 µm less deviation than horizontal (0°), and the molar region is the biggest offender — an in vitro study with real workflow implications.
In her annual digest editorial, IJP Editor-in-Chief Irena Sailer surveys all six 2025 issues and identifies four converging themes: digital workflows now meeting standard-of-care criteria, ceramics confidence anchored by long-term data, 3D printing maturing with important caveats, and a shift toward biopsychosocial patient care.
A 2026 network meta-analysis of 18 studies and 780 immediately placed implants finds that every guided surgical protocol significantly outperforms freehand placement in angular, platform, and apex deviation — with robotic and dynamic navigation ranking highest, though their advantage over fully-guided static approaches narrows under RCT-restricted sensitivity analysis.
A fully digital workflow for occlusal adjustment — from virtual articulator simulation to 3D-printed grinding guides — offers a glimpse of how technology might tame one of prosthodontics' most unpredictable chairside procedures.
A randomised controlled trial of 100 patients comparing five osteotomy protocols finds that moderate-speed drilling at 300 rpm delivers the most consistent implant stability gains over three months, while bone condensation shows a worrying ISQ decline.
An in vitro study of 50 molar teeth finds that finishing CAD-CAM crown preparations with a fine-grit red diamond bur after coarser preparation cuts the mean marginal gap roughly in half, from 64 µm down to 28 µm.
A Korean retrospective study finds proximal contact loss in more than half of implants functioning for over a decade. Here is what the data means for how you monitor long-term implant patients.
An in vitro study from Phenikaa University tests sixteen combinations of sandblasting, adhesive system, and composite viscosity on extracted premolars, finding that flowable composites outperform packable ones on sandblasted dentin, and that Single Bond Universal in etch-and-rinse mode leads overall — but that the best outcomes depend heavily on which factors are combined, not which single factor is 'best'.
A histological canine study from the University of Zurich finds that restorative emergence angles above 40° produce a sharp, dose-dependent rise in peri-implant inflammatory cell infiltration — providing the biological mechanism behind a threshold that clinicians can now design against.
A 2026 PRISMA-registered systematic review of 20 studies finds that optical jaw tracking systems offer real precision advantages over mechanical articulators, but high risk of bias across the literature and the absence of standardised protocols mean this technology is further from routine adoption than the marketing suggests.
A 12-month longitudinal study of 30 participants finds that posterior monolithic zirconia resin-bonded fixed partial dentures produce clinically meaningful improvements in oral health-related quality of life, with the OHIP-14 total score dropping from 4.2 to 1.8 and gains concentrated in orofacial pain and orofacial appearance.
An in vitro study from Stony Brook University places 80 short (6 × 7 mm) and conventional (3.75 × 10 mm) Ditron implants in hard and soft bone simulants, finding that short wide implants outperform their conventional-length counterparts on insertion torque and Periotest values in both bone types — challenging the assumption that more length automatically means more stability.
A retrospective study of 256 immediately loaded full-arch implants in 50 patients identifies smoking, maxillary placement, female sex, and age over 65 as significant risk factors for marginal bone loss — while reporting a 98% implant survival rate and a mechanical complication rate that should prompt a frank preoperative conversation with every full-arch candidate.
Manfredini et al. wade through 1,961 records to propose a unified three-tier healing abutment classification — and discover that the field has been arguing about things nobody agreed to define in the first place.
A prospective study of 332 implant patients finds preoperative dental anxiety independently predicts postoperative pain, but only up to a critical threshold score. What this means for how you screen patients before surgery.
A 14-year retrospective follow-up of anterior maxillary implants in adults over 40 finds that adjacent teeth can continue erupting around fixed implant crowns, especially in Class II division 1 occlusion, creating infra-occlusion and measurable marginal bone implications.
Kizilkaya and colleagues test whether standardised digital photography with colour-analysis software can match the spectrophotometer for shade matching — and the answer is complicated.
A multifactorial analysis of 404 implants identifies deep probing, absent keratinised mucosa, microgap abutments, inadequate transmucosal height, and periodontitis history as the key drivers of peri-implant bone loss.
A Harvard team describes a 3D-printed multifunctional intraoral device that consolidates impression-taking, centric relation recording, facial scanning, and optical jaw tracking into a single visit for edentulous patients — bringing complete-denture workflows into the digital era for the first time.
A 1:1 matched case–control study from Mumbai finds that chairside bis-acryl mock-ups and chairside-only shade matching are strongly associated with patient-initiated esthetic dissatisfaction within 12 months of ceramic veneer delivery — with adjusted odds ratios of 5.87 and 4.41 respectively — while cost tier has no significant effect.
Clinton Stevens' 2026 commentary in the International Journal of Periodontics & Restorative Dentistry argues that monolithic zirconia's reputation as the most biocompatible ceramic in dentistry is not supported by evidence — and that when soft-tissue response, enamel wear, tooth structure conservation, and clinical retrievability are assessed together, the claim quietly falls apart.
Irena Sailer's editorial digest of the International Journal of Prosthodontics argues that digital workflows have crossed into ordinary clinical infrastructure, reliable ceramics have consolidated their place, and the profession's next arguments are increasingly about protocol discipline, patient factors, and data governance.
Hsieh et al. compare half-grafted and full-grafted alveolar ridge preservation using serial CBCT over 12 months — and while the full graft holds its horizontal dimensions better, volumetric outcomes and implant health are equivalent.
An in vitro study of 50 maxillary central incisors with no ferrule finds that CAD/CAM glass-fibre post-cores and hybrid ceramic endocrowns produce the highest fracture strength, while conventional glass-fibre posts achieve 100% repairable failures — making the choice less about strength and more about what happens when things go wrong.
Alshahrani and colleagues tested three CAD-CAM ceramic materials across wide and narrow rest seat designs, finding that rest seat geometry significantly influenced both fracture resistance and internal fit — with wide designs delivering superior strength and better adaptation.
An in-vitro study from Ohio State University shows that the material opposing an occlusal splint, enamel, lithium disilicate, or zirconia, determines how fast the splint wears down, eclipsing the effect of whether the splint was milled, printed, or heat-polymerised.
A scoping review of 126 studies maps the repair protocol landscape for fractured ceramics — hydrofluoric acid plus silane wins for glass ceramics, while air abrasion with MDP-containing primers leads for zirconia.
A retrospective study of 125 patients finds that in-situ bone onlay grafting — harvesting from the apical area of the implant site itself — produces significantly less resorption than ex-situ grafts from the chin or external oblique line during initial healing.
A 4-year case report describes a 15-year-old patient whose post-orthodontic white spot lesions darkened after unsupervised use of fluoride-free activated charcoal powder, with microabrasion only partly resolving the staining before direct composite veneers were needed.
A nationwide Korean study reveals that nearly 9 in 10 patients over 65 receiving implants have at least one systemic disease — and the medications that worry clinicians most may not be the ones causing failures.
Kim et al. quantify the vertical dimension threshold at which facial changes become perceptible, finding 4 mm is the tipping point for observer detection.
A new in vitro study from Sichuan University finds that 3D print offset settings for surgical guide sleeves have a dramatic effect on implant placement accuracy — and the margin between too tight and too loose is just 0.04 mm.
CariesAI-3D, a multitask learning network developed by Qi et al. at Tongji University, classifies dentin caries severity on CBCT images with 88.6% accuracy across four categories — and unusually, uses class activation mapping to show clinicians exactly which anatomical regions drove each decision.
A photoelastic study by Corte et al. finds that increasing Morse taper internal wall angle from 11.5° to 16° produces no measurable difference in peri-implant stress distribution — suggesting the marketing distinction between these two popular implant geometries may outrun the biomechanics.
A 2025 in vitro study in the Journal of Prosthodontics by Diken Turksayar and colleagues fabricates 32 three-unit monolithic Y-TZP bridges across four manufacturing routes — CNC milling, SLA, DLP, and LCM — and finds that DLP produces marginal gaps of 154 µm, well above the 120 µm clinical threshold, while SLA matches CNC milling in trueness across most measured regions.
Niakou et al.'s systematic review and meta-analysis finds endocrowns offer comparable survival and complication rates to conventional crowns on structurally compromised teeth.
A cross-sectional Japanese study of 4,616 adults aged 65 and over finds that depressive symptoms — not clinical need or quoted treatment costs — is the strongest single predictor of whether an older patient is even willing to pay for missing tooth replacement, while accumulated wealth dominates how much they are willing to pay.
A scanner-agnostic Python workflow interpolates dynamic mandibular motion paths from four static interocclusal records, exporting motion files compatible with dental CAD software — no proprietary jaw tracker required.
Laser-microtextured implant collars may neutralise the bone loss risks of wider emergence angles and convex profiles — a 10-year retrospective study suggests the surface treatment matters more than the restoration contour.
A 2026 prospective clinical trial of CAD/CAM customised titanium mesh for Cawood and Howell Class V ridge atrophy reports nearly 6 mm of vertical and horizontal bone gain, low marginal bone loss, and a familiar soft-tissue warning: exposure still matters.
A 12-patient proof-of-concept study using tissue-level Straumann TLX implants and a fully digital workflow reports 100% 6-month survival for immediate placement and immediate loading in posterior single-tooth sites, though the sample is tiny and the follow-up brief.
Altuhafy and colleagues reviewed 12 randomised clinical trials and found that digital workflows for single implant crowns usually make impressions faster and more comfortable, even when the downstream differences in crown adjustment and overall satisfaction are less dramatic.
Robles and colleagues test 4 mm short implants against longer implants and find that high crown-to-implant ratios increase micromotion and stress, while splinting makes the short option behave more respectably.
Kader et al. expose 120 provisional restoration specimens to cigarette smoke and find that milled PMMA outperforms both conventional bis-acryl and 3D-printed resins for colour and translucency stability — with brushing only partially reversing the damage.
Çankaya et al. train an XGBoost model on thermal images of the anterior maxillary gingiva and achieve 92.7% accuracy classifying gingival inflammation — no probing, no contact, no operator variability.
A 2025 systematic review of 14 studies and 571 molar extraction sites finds that alveolar ridge preservation reduces bone width loss by approximately 1–2 mm compared to spontaneous healing, and cuts the need for advanced bone augmentation from 47.7% to 20.8% — including a striking reduction in lateral window sinus lifts.
A narrative review from the University of Florida catalogues the ways AI segmentation in implant planning software can fail — from misidentifying the inferior alveolar nerve to hallucinating anatomy that isn't there — and why clinicians must verify before they trust.
Zhang et al.'s systematic review finds MRI and ultrasound produce clinically acceptable measurements for implant planning, challenging CBCT's monopoly on preoperative imaging.
A retrospective split-mouth comparison of 100 implants found narrow-diameter internal-hex implants matched standard implants for survival and marginal bone over 4.2 years, while also carrying the only recorded technical complications.
In an IJOMI editorial, Clark Stanford argues that AI planning, 3D printing, smart implants and robotics should be treated as promising adjuncts rather than self-authenticating progress, especially when workflow errors and data governance are still unresolved.
A case report with 10-year follow-up shows two adjacent implants placed just 1 mm apart maintained interproximal crestal bone 1.40 mm above the implant shoulder, challenging the longstanding 3 mm interimplant distance guideline.
A cross-sectional study by Monje and colleagues found that implant malpositioning, not patient-level risk factors, was the dominant driver of peri-implantitis, with offset implants carrying up to 7.4-fold greater odds of disease than axially placed counterparts.
A 10-year prospective multi-centre study on one-piece 3Y-TZP zirconia implants reports a cumulative survival rate of just 73.3% and an implant success rate of 56.75%, driven largely by peri-implantitis. The authors explicitly recommend against routine clinical use of this system — a rare and important negative verdict from the researchers who ran the study.
A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis of six RCTs finds resin infiltration outperforms bleaching and microabrasion for masking dental fluorosis (ΔE 5.41), but I² values reaching 99.84% and confirmed publication bias for the esthetic improvement outcome demand a sceptical reading of those forest plots.
A randomised trial by Cimino et al. found that adding a hard stabilisation splint to counselling produced no additional benefit on neck pain or cervical disability over three months in TMD patients — suggesting clinicians can reasonably defer the splint when conservative self-management is already moving the numbers.
Guarnieri and colleagues followed 730 Laser-Lok implants in 312 private-practice patients for up to 20.9 years, recording a cumulative survival rate of 95.3% at 20 years and identifying seven factors — including smoking, male sex, D4 bone, and insertion torque ≥ 35 Ncm — independently associated with late failure.
A two-part clinical study from Istanbul University finds that optical and electronic jaw tracking systems produce significantly different condylar inclination measurements, yet neither meaningfully outperforms a semi-adjustable articulator when it comes to the final occlusal shape of a posterior bridge or full-arch splint.
A PRISMA-registered systematic review and meta-analysis of five prospective clinical trials finds that occlusal loading on single posterior implant crowns increases progressively from 5.91% at two weeks to 19.41% at 36 months — with statistically significant divergence from 12 months. The implication is clear: the occlusal scheme delivered at fit appointment is a starting point, not a destination.
Antoun and colleagues followed 53 six-millimetre wide-diameter implants placed in healed molar sites and immediately provisionally restored out of occlusion, finding only two failures over a mean 6.3 years and average marginal bone loss of 0.89 mm.
Lower sintering temperatures produce mechanically superior conventional zirconia, whilst translucent formulations stubbornly resist this advantage regardless of heat protocol — Brunetto et al. clarify what the firing chart has been trying to tell us.
A 36-month split-mouth randomized preliminary clinical study found that using a definitive two-piece abutment after submerged healing reduced marginal bone level changes at key checkpoints compared with a standard healing-abutment workflow.
A systematic review and meta-analysis of 17 RCTs finds that single implant-supported mandibular overdentures deliver equivalent implant survival to two-implant designs at up to 5 years, but carry roughly twice the risk of denture fracture and need for full denture replacement — a trade-off with real implications for patients who can only afford one.
A clinical study from Yonsei University comparing removable partial denture frameworks fabricated via intraoral scanning versus conventional impression methods finds intraoral scanning delivers significantly better rest-seat accuracy, with the advantage most pronounced at the terminal abutments of distal-extension cases.
A retrospective study of 203 patients and 1,356 implants found similar survival and overall prosthetic success for immediate-loading conometric and screw-retained full-arch prostheses, but conometric restorations detached more often.
A 26-patient randomized trial of flapless immediate implants in the anterior maxilla found no significant 1-year difference in marginal bone, Pink Esthetic Score, or OHIP when the definitive zirconia abutment was placed at 4 days rather than 3 months.
Griffin and colleagues mine the US Veterans Affairs database — 132,675 patients, 468,496 implants, 21 years — and find that prior failure history, not smoking or diabetes, is the strongest predictor of future failure, with an 86% intraclass correlation at the patient level.
A 2025 narrative review by Robbins, Alvarez, and Tokutomi in the International Journal of Periodontics and Restorative Dentistry compiles longitudinal implant-failure data for the anterior maxilla and argues the zirconia single-wing resin-bonded bridge — not the implant — should be the first-line protocol for missing maxillary lateral incisors in most patients.
Attal and colleagues describe a posterior single-retainer cantilever zirconia bridge for a missing mandibular molar and show that, in a very carefully selected case, the idea is less reckless than it sounds. The paper is only a case report, but the protocol is detailed enough to be genuinely useful.
A systematic review of eight prospective studies finds that implant-supported crowns, initially set light on purpose, progressively increase in occlusal force, contact area, and contact duration until they match or exceed adjacent natural teeth — often within months, sometimes years.
A Turkish in vitro study of 108 specimens finds that UV post-curing 3D-printed temporary crown resins for 30 minutes optimises mechanical, optical, and chemical properties simultaneously — and that extending curing to 45 minutes begins to degrade the polymer network despite producing marginally higher hardness scores.
Flowable composite resin markers placed between scan bodies significantly improve intraoral scanning accuracy for edentulous mandibular arches, offering a simple, low-cost enhancement to digital implant workflows.
A 2025 scoping review of 26 studies by Santos, da Silva, Lins, and colleagues from the Federal University of Rio Grande do Norte maps the evidence base for deep margin elevation and finds a discipline that has quietly adopted a technique on short-term reassurance while the one 12-year longitudinal study reports bleeding on probing in 50% of cases and periodontal complications with bone loss in 11%.
A randomised clinical trial compares chairside composite and prefabricated zirconia sealing socket abutments for posterior immediate implants — finding that composite preserves buccal volume while zirconia delivers shallower probing depths.
Bakopoulos and colleagues followed 21 implant-supported fixed partial prostheses with cantilever extensions for a mean 13.3 years and found 100% implant survival, modest bone change, and no extra radiographic penalty beside the cantilever, although the prostheses still generated a fair amount of mechanical commentary.
Al-Dwairi and Al-Haj Husain show that repeated firing cycles alter both colour stability and translucency in zirconia-reinforced lithium disilicate ceramics, with Vita Ambria High Translucent maintaining the strongest translucency profile across repeated firings.
An in vitro study of 135 additively manufactured zirconia crowns finds that a 30 µm cement gap combined with Panavia 21 produces the best fit and highest pull-out resistance when bonding AM-Z crowns to Ti-base abutments — a clinically actionable finding for digital implant workflows.
An in vitro volumetric study by Real-Voltas and colleagues from the Universitat Internacional de Catalunya finds that conventional BOPT (Biologically Oriented Preparation Technique) removes less tooth structure than chamfer in incisors and canines — but modified BOPT (BOPTm) removes substantially more, inverting the conservation assumption that drives many clinicians toward vertical preparations.
Albertini and colleagues found that 49% of dentate adults showed a 2-degree or greater discrepancy between the interpupillary line and the true horizon in natural head position, making blind photo alignment a surprisingly risky foundation for facially driven digital planning.
A systematic review of 20 studies and 1,245 patients finds that sinus augmentation and combined sinus-onlay grafting produce similarly high implant survival rates in the resorbed posterior maxilla — but the evidence base is thin, and crown-to-implant ratio remains a largely unexamined complication driver.
A systematic review and meta-analysis of 11 studies finds that stereophotogrammetry significantly outperforms intraoral scanning for full-arch implant impressions in precision, trueness, and angular accuracy.
Chang et al. find no correlation between directional ISQ values and bone-to-implant contact in a cadaver study — suggesting the reassuring beep from your Osstell is measuring implant shoulder engagement, not total osseointegration.
A case report from the International University of Catalunya introduces a multilayer flowable injection technique using three distinct 3D-printed models and separate dentin and enamel composite shades to produce optically stratified anterior restorations without the skill demands of freehand layering.
An in vitro study finds that the shade of composite resin cavity bases in endocrown preparations significantly affects intraoral scanner accuracy — with lighter shades (A1 and B1) producing higher RMS trueness errors than darker shades (A2 and A3), a finding with direct workflow implications for clinicians planning digital impressions after root canal treatment.
A randomised controlled trial of 426 patients by Haggag and colleagues found that adding a structured doctor–patient communication protocol to splint therapy produced dramatically better pain, psychological distress, and satisfaction outcomes than splint therapy alone — with a 12-month satisfaction gap too large to dismiss.
A 2025 rat tibia study finds that amitriptyline and sertraline reduce removal torque and bone area around titanium implants during early healing, while nanohydroxyapatite coating partially preserves bone-implant contact without restoring mechanical stability.
A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis by Ismail, Ali, and Garcia-Godoy finds that for fresh resin-modified glass ionomer treated before composite overlay, phosphoric acid and Er,Cr:YSGG laser produce statistically equivalent bond strengths — making one of restorative dentistry's more agonised technique decisions a non-variable.
A randomised controlled trial from Ain Shams University finds no significant difference in survival, stability, or marginal bone loss between immediate molar implants loaded at six weeks versus three months, provided primary stability is confirmed with fully guided placement.
A 2025 systematic review of nine laboratory studies finds that preheating composite resin for adhesive bonding consistently worsens marginal adaptation — the very property it was expected to improve — while offering no consensus benefit across microhardness, shear strength, film thickness, or viscosity.
A technique from the University of Iowa uses AI tooth segmentation and the CAD mirror-image feature to replicate a natural emergence profile for immediate anterior implant restorations, bypassing the geometric compromises of prefabricated healing abutments.
Ballesteros et al. compare 3D-printed and milled surgical guides with and without metal sleeves — and find that sleeveless guides consistently outperform sleeved ones for implant placement accuracy.
A systematic review of 24 clinical studies finds that platform-switching implants improve soft tissue esthetics and stabilise marginal bone — but the advantage over conventional designs is partial, not absolute.
A pilot study by Guo et al. in the Journal of Prosthetic Dentistry quantifies the facial soft-tissue changes after full-arch implant-supported fixed prosthesis delivery using a digital virtual patient workflow, finding upper lip region change of 3.23 mm median RMS and a nasolabial angle reduction of 6.48 degrees.
A 2026 systematic review in the Journal of Prosthetic Dentistry by Lawand, Tohme, Azevedo, and colleagues analyses 48 studies across three alignment families and finds that extraoral scan bodies — particularly those with three-dimensional cubic geometry — consistently outperform marker-free and peri-oral approaches for virtual patient registration accuracy.
Reused healing abutments develop surface roughness, protein contamination, and microgaps averaging 43 µm — creating conditions for bacterial leakage that sterile components avoid entirely. A tightening torque of 15 N·cm largely eliminates the gap, but the fundamental case for single-use remains.
Robert and colleagues review 45 bibliometric studies on dental implantology and show why publication trends can orient clinical thinking, but should not be mistaken for clinical evidence.
Kavvas-Celik and colleagues tested Co-Cr and zirconia fixed partial denture frameworks in both straight and curved geometries, finding that DMLS Co-Cr outperformed milled zirconia nearly threefold in curved-anterior designs — a result that the marketing narrative around metal-free ceramics does not prepare clinicians to expect.
Azevedo and colleagues show that six-implant complete-arch digital impressions become markedly truer and more consistent when horizontal scan bodies replace a conventional vertical design, with Primescan the standout performer and iTero plus a vertical PEEK body the least convincing pairing.
A 2025 retrospective cohort from Ohio State University College of Dentistry tracks 1,282 implants in 732 patients and finds that outright implant failure was uncommon, while soft-tissue complications, periodontitis history, and diabetes carried the more practical maintenance signal.
Abduljabbar and colleagues compare single-retainer lithium disilicate RBFDPs with implant-supported single crowns in the esthetic zone across five Swedish clinics, finding 87.9% vs 96.7% five-year survival but equivalent patient satisfaction.
A systematic review and meta-analysis of 13 studies found stereophotogrammetry more reliable than intraoral scanning for complete-arch implant impressions, while also reminding clinicians that the in vivo evidence is still thin and the rigid prototype try-in remains sensible.
A CBCT-based digital analysis of 57 maxillary teeth finds that simulating a chamfer preparation 1 mm coronal to the CEJ increases the emergence profile inclination from approximately 13° to 19–21° — a roughly 50% steepening that occurs with every single-crown preparation and that most prosthetic planning tools still ignore.
An in vitro study comparing five zirconia surface treatments confirms that alumina air-particle abrasion delivers the highest and most durable bond strengths — and that heated hydrofluoric acid matches it, but at a practical cost nobody should pay.
A systematic review of 42 laboratory studies reveals that ultrasonic scaling and air polishing damage dental restorations, with material-specific effects on surface roughness and marginal quality. Glycine and erythritol powders emerge as the least destructive options.
A 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis of four controlled trials (167 implant crowns) finds that angled-screw-channel-retained implant crowns in nonmolar sites produce comparable marginal bone levels, probing depths, and aesthetic scores to cement-retained crowns, with the one notable advantage being a statistically significant reduction in bleeding on probing.
Khalifah's 2025 RCT pits his novel double expansion technique against conventional ridge splitting for immediate implant placement in narrow ridges, finding meaningfully lower marginal bone loss, better primary stability, and a more comfortable early postoperative course — though the single-author, single-centre design means independent replication is the essential next step.
An umbrella review in IJOMI identified ten patient-related peri-implantitis risk factors and makes the uncomfortable point that clinicians keep getting into trouble when they interpret one variable in isolation and ignore the rest of the clinical cast.
A novel marker-assisted IOS workflow from the University of Michigan enables accurate complete denture digitisation using a TRIOS4 and free Meshmixer software, without modifying the denture's critical border or intaglio surface.
Pachiou et al.'s 2025 systematic review and meta-analysis of 2,741 narrow-diameter implants finds 97.7% pooled survival in posterior sites — comparable to standard-diameter fixtures.
Static and dynamic computer-aided implant surgery show comparable accuracy — clinical context, not assumed superiority, should drive the choice between them.
The AiDENTAL RPD Surveyor and Designer is a lightweight web app that digitises diagnostic surveying, automates framework design, and closes the last major gap in the removable partial denture digital workflow.
Ashurko et al. pit a xenogeneic volume-stable collagen matrix against the subepithelial connective tissue graft for buccal soft tissue augmentation at simultaneous implant placement — and the results flip between three and six months.
A systematic review and meta-analysis of 11 RCTs finds the 'one abutment one time' protocol produces statistically significant reductions in marginal bone loss at 6 months, with a consistent directional trend at 12 months that narrowly missed significance after sensitivity analysis — the absolute benefit is modest and best realised with platform switching and taller abutments.
An 80-patient randomized controlled study found that a modified socket shield technique, used without immediate implant placement, preserved buccal plate height and ridge width better than spontaneous healing and produced higher primary stability at delayed implant placement.
A clinical trial of 75 implant-supported fixed dental prostheses finds that generic and non-original scan bodies produce clinically equivalent restorations and statistically indistinguishable implant position transfers compared to original brand-matched scan bodies — suggesting the aftermarket option is a legitimate choice in the complete digital workflow.
A 528-implant observational study after alveolar ridge preservation finds that pristine bone engagement below 1.1 mm roughly doubles failure risk — a useful planning threshold when regenerated socket walls look more reassuring than they are.
A 2025 bibliometric analysis of 275 tooth bleaching studies published between 2001 and 2024 maps where dental research effort has pooled — in-office hydrogen peroxide, Brazilian institutions, and sensitivity management — and what remains conspicuously unaddressed: long-term enamel effects, standardised light-activation protocols, and robust evidence for over-the-counter products.
An in vitro study by Alkhazaleh and colleagues at Oregon Health & Science University finds that lithium disilicate alone — even at 2.0 mm — cannot mask amalgam show-through to acceptable levels, but a single layer of resin-based opaquer changes everything, with IPS e.max CAD reaching excellent masking at 2.0 mm when the substrate is opaqued.
Donker and colleagues test a fully digital workflow for immediate implant placement and provisionalization in the maxillary aesthetic zone — prefabricated temporaries, guided surgery, excellent aesthetics — but a 10% early failure rate complicates the narrative.
Goodacre and Goldstein's 2025 review finds zero clinical trials comparing occlusal schemes for tooth-supported FPDs, forcing the profession back to First Principles.
A single-operator case series from the University of Liège reports 100% survival across 16 no-preparation zirconia cantilever resin-bonded fixed dental prostheses in 11 patients over a mean follow-up of 3.0 years — with 81% of patients exhibiting bruxism — suggesting the implant-default for young patients with congenitally missing lateral incisors deserves a harder look.
An analytical review of 18 clinical datasets found that splinted short implants failed less often than single short implants and approached the performance of longer implants, making the graftless option look much more defensible when splinting is possible.
A 7-year retrospective study of 143 immediate single-tooth implants in the anterior maxilla found comparable survival in non-infected, acutely infected, and chronically infected sites when the surgical and provisionalisation protocol was meticulous.
Fasbinder et al. track 100 IPS e.max CAD crowns over ten years and find 92% survival — with a twist: cement choice barely affects longevity overall, but determines whether your crown debonds or fractures.
A retrospective cohort of 243 scanbodies at Hacettepe University finds that successful CAD library alignment does not guarantee adequate scan quality — nearly half showed rough texture representation, and original cylindrical PEEK scanbodies were over six times more likely to degrade than non-original aluminium alternatives.
Deflorian and colleagues turn immediate anterior implant placement into a practical risk filter: primary stability first, then buccal plate integrity, gingival phenotype, and recession. The paper is not a guideline, but it is a useful reminder that implant timing should follow tissue risk rather than surgical enthusiasm.
A cross-sectional study from the University of Bern tested whether intraoral scanner images could replace digital camera photographs for PES/WES scoring — and found that the imaging method barely matters. What matters is who is holding the score sheet.
Dong and colleagues analyse 2,620 anterior implants across 2,023 patients and find that insertion torque below 30 N/cm carries a staggering 13-fold increase in early failure risk — dwarfing every other variable in the model.
A randomised clinical trial by Godoy-Reina and colleagues found that narrow-platform implants (3.0 mm) prepared with either piezoelectric osteotomy or conventional drilling consistently failed the ISQ ≥70 threshold for immediate loading despite achieving adequate insertion torque — raising a pointed question about whether resonance frequency analysis systematically underestimates stability in narrow-diameter implants.
Brizuela-Velasco and colleagues used bovine rib and a live rabbit model to measure heat generated by conventional six-drill sequential protocols versus a single-drill approach in guided implant surgery, finding similar peak temperatures but dramatically different thermal exposure times.
A systematic review and meta-analysis of 18 studies finds that implant diameter has surprisingly little influence on most prosthesis complications — but narrow-diameter implants do show significantly fewer abutment fractures than standard ones.
Younis et al. compare the Remebot robot-assisted system against freehand implant placement across 95 implants — and the accuracy gap is not marginal. It's threefold.
A 2024 PRISMA-compliant systematic review of five clinical studies finds that customised healing abutments consistently trend toward better peri-implant soft and hard tissue outcomes than prefabricated titanium alternatives, with significantly improved Pink Aesthetic Scores and less chairside pain during crown delivery — though the evidence base remains small and the call for larger trials is urgent.
Gseibat et al.'s 5-year prospective RCT finds translucent monolithic zirconia posterior crowns achieve 100% survival and comparable clinical performance to metal-ceramic restorations fabricated via digital workflow.
Breunig et al. follow 162 implants for up to twenty years and discover that gingival phenotype predicts crestal bone loss and peri-implantitis risk — with thick, flat tissue emerging as the long-term troublemaker nobody expected.
A 2024 review from UCLA's Weintraub Center documents the central biological paradox of modern implantology: the microrough titanium surfaces that became the clinical standard in the 1990s halve to quarter osteoblast attachment and proliferation compared to smooth machined titanium, even as they accelerate differentiation — and the current generation of nanofeatured commercial implants has not solved it.
A scoping review of stackable surgical guides finds only 12 case-report-level studies in the literature, with just 4 reporting quantitative accuracy data — exposing a stark mismatch between the technique's prominence in implant conference programmes and the actual evidence base supporting it.
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