Immediate Implant Placement Using the Socket Shield Technique: Clinical, Radiographic, and Volumetric Results Using 3D Digital Techniques-A Case Series.

Extraction-site alveolar remodeling is a major concern due to negative volumetric hard and soft tissue changes that inevitably limit rehabilitation options and diminish esthetic outcomes. Surgical techniques employed to minimize alveolar dimensional changes are not always predictable. Utilizing a socket shield with an immediate surgical implant procedure helps maintain a thin portion of the root in the vestibular area and thus minimizes bone resorption, especially at the coronal cortical aspect. This case series assesses the dimensional changes in peri-alveolar structures via superimposition of the preoperative and 6-month postoperative 3D digital quantification of soft tissue. Fifty patients with 50 sites fulfilled the inclusion criteria. Implant survival was 100%, with no incidence of complications. Tissue changes were as follows: -0.85 mm at the mesial papilla, -0.95 mm at the distal papilla, -0.7 mm at both the vertical and horizontal central margins, -0.21 mm at a distance 4 mm from the margin, and -0.64 mm at the palatal central margin. The buccal contour was clinically convex in all cases. The site with highest frequency of > 1 mm of dimensional loss was the distal papilla (42% of sites), and the site with the lowest frequency was the point 4 mm from the midfacial margin (0% of sites).

Immediate loading in ectodermal dysplasia: clinical case.

The aim of the present report is to describe a clinical case of ectodermal dysplasia (ED) treated with an immediate implant-loading protocol. Six implants were placed in freshly extracted sockets of a 55-year-old patient with ED and immediately loaded in 48 hours. No immediate implant-loading protocol in a patient with ED has been reported. Implant management is difficult because of knife-edge ridges and pathologic 3-dimensional relation of the jaws. In the present case, implant non-parallelism caused by alveolar ridge atrophy was managed using a specific prosthetic connection device that simplified the surgical and prosthetic procedure and allowed a low-risk immediate-loading protocol.