Objective :
To evaluate prosthetic complications in 236 patients treated with 528 implants over an 8-year period in private practice.
Materials and Methods :
The sample included 55 removable prostheses (overdentures, OD) and 265 fixed partial dentures (FPD). Among these, 231 FPDs were cemented and 34 were screw-retained. The type and frequency of prosthetic incidents, including adjustments and complications, were recorded. A statistical analysis (chi-square test) was performed to identify risk factors associated with complications.
Results and Discussion :
During this period, 1 abutment fractured and 2 became loose, resulting in a cumulative success rate of 99.2% for implant components. Patients with removable prostheses experienced more complications than those with fixed prostheses (66.0% vs. 11.5%), with a statistically significant difference (P < 0.001).
Posterior fixed prostheses showed more complications than anterior ones (11.0% vs. 0%), although this difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.16). No significant difference was found between cemented and screw-retained prostheses (10.4% vs. 5.9%; P = 0.61).
Prostheses with cantilevers exhibited significantly more complications than those without (29.4% vs. 7.9%; P = 0.01). In the OD group, ball-retained prostheses had a significantly higher complication rate than bar-retained prostheses (77.5% vs. 42.9%; P = 0.04).
In the FPD group, complications were not recurrent; most occurred within the first two years, and the complication rate did not increase over time. In the OD group, an average of 1.3 incidents per prosthesis was recorded. These incidents were often recurrent, and the complication rate did not decrease over time.
Conclusions :
Removable and fixed prostheses are associated with different types and frequencies of complications. In the removable group, adjustments and predictable complications were frequent, recurrent, and generally easy to manage. Bar-retained prostheses showed fewer complications than ball-retained ones.
In the fixed group, complications were limited in number and did not worsen over time. Most complications were confined to the posterior region.
Keywords :
Clinical study, complications, dental implants, fixed prostheses, removable prostheses
