Review of Scientific Articles on Complete Dental Implants Published in Nature

Dental implants are artificial tooth roots that are inserted into the jawbone to support prosthetic teeth. Dental implants are widely used to restore missing teeth and improve oral function and aesthetics. However, the success of dental implants depends largely on their ability to integrate with the surrounding bone tissue, a process known as osseointegration. Osseointegration is influenced by various factors, such as the implant design, material, and surface treatment.

Nature is a prestigious scientific journal that publishes high-quality research articles on various topics, including dentistry and dental implants. In this review, I will summarize and evaluate three recent articles on complete dental implants published in Nature.

The first article is titled “Survival of immediate implants replacing traumatised teeth in the anterior maxilla” by Hirani et al.¹. This article reports the results of a retrospective study that assessed the clinical outcomes of immediate implants placed in fresh extraction sites in the anterior maxilla following dental trauma. The authors included 60 patients who required teeth replacement with dental implants in the anterior maxilla and followed them up for three years. The authors measured implant and prosthetic survival, complications, and periodontal health. The authors found that immediate implants had a high survival rate of 95.7% and a high prosthetic survival rate of 100%, with favorable periodontal outcomes. The authors concluded that immediate implants can be a predictable treatment strategy for replacing traumatised teeth in the anterior maxilla, presenting high implant survival rates over the follow-up period observed.

The second article is titled “Dental implants in patients affected by systemic diseases” by Donos and Calciolari². This article reviews the available evidence on the survival/success of dental implants in patients affected by systemic diseases, such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, osteoporosis, or cancer. The authors also provide practical suggestions to the clinician when possible. The authors found that some systemic diseases can increase the risk or severity of implant failure or complications, while others may not have a significant impact on implant outcomes. The authors suggested that careful patient selection, monitoring of medical condition and medications, modification of surgical protocol, and maintenance of oral hygiene are important factors for ensuring successful implant therapy in medically compromised patients.

The third article is titled “The osseointegration and stability of dental implants with different surface treatments in animal models: a network meta-analysis” by Hao et al.³. This article compares the osseointegration and stability of four commonly used dental implants with different surface treatments (SLA, SLActive, TiUnite, and Osseotite) in animal models using a network meta-analysis. A network meta-analysis is a statistical method that can combine direct and indirect evidence from multiple studies to compare multiple interventions simultaneously. The authors included 12 studies in their analysis and measured osseointegration by the bone-to-implant contact (BIC) value and stability by the removal torque (RTQ) value. The authors found that SLActive had the best effect on osseointegration at an early healing stage (2–4 weeks), while TiUnite had the best effect on osseointegration at an intermediate or late healing stage (6–16 weeks) and on stability at any healing stage (2–16 weeks). The authors concluded that SLActive and TiUnite had superior performance over SLA and Osseotite in terms of osseointegration and stability in animal models.

These three articles provide valuable insights into the current research and practice of complete dental implants. They highlight the importance of considering various factors that can affect implant outcomes, such as trauma, systemic diseases, and surface treatments. They also demonstrate the use of different methods and measures to evaluate implant performance, such as retrospective studies, systematic reviews, network meta-analyses, BIC values, and RTQ values. These articles contribute to the advancement of knowledge and evidence-based dentistry in the field of dental implants.