Dentascan Evaluation of Hard Tissue Changes around Implants Placed in Healed Sockets

Aim: Implant placement is a lucrative and offers several advan­ tages. This study was done to find out any hard tissue changes around the implants in faciolingual/palatal direction before and after 6 months of implant placement. Materials and methods: This study was done on 12 patients (29 implants) who has undergone implant placement. Implant system used was Alpha­Bio®. Dentascan, intraoral periapical (IOPA) and orthopantomogram (OPG), were taken to assess the quantity and the quality of the bone, proximity anatomical structure, dimension of the tooth to be replaced and the faciolingual/palatal width of bone at 1 mm apical to the crest. Then 3 mm apical to the crest and 6 mm apical to the crest was calculated. Second stage surgery was carried out after 6 months depending upon the quality of the bone. Results: Statistical analysis was done on statistical packages for the social sciences (SPSS) version 15 software. The results were tested using normality tests (Kolmogorov­Smirnov and Shapiro­Wilk). The mean value faciolingua/palatal at the crest was 5.59 ± 0.87 mm before implant placement and 5.12 ± 0.78 after 6 months, 3 mm apical to the crest the mean value was 8.57 ± 1.25 and after 6 months it was 8.39 ± 1.21 and 6 mm apical to the crest the mean value before was 10.55 ± 1.61 and after 6 months it was 10.36 ± 1.64 mm. Results from this present study showed statistically significant bone loss in faciolingual/ palatal direction. Conclusion: We can say that delayed implant placement is a safe and predictable option, and bone remodeling bound to occur after implant placement but the faciopalatal/lingual changes are clinically not significant.