Histological evaluation of osseointegration between conventional and novel bone-level tapered implants in healed bone: A preclinical study

Aims: To histologically compare osseointegration and crestal bone healing between newly introduced tapered, self-cutting bone-level test implants and tapered bone-level control implants in sites with fully healed sites. Methods: Sixty-six implants (33 test, 33 control) were placed 1 mm subcrestally in a minipig model and underwent qualitative histologic and quantitative histometric analyses after 3, 6 and 12 weeks of submerged healing. The primary and secondary outcomes were the bone-to-implant contact (BIC) and first bone-to-implant contact (fBIC). Outcomes between the test and control implants were statistically compared. Results: The BIC values of the test implants were comparable and non-inferior over the time points studied, except for the 12 weeks time point which showed statistically significantly higher BIC values of the test (88.07 ± 5.35%) compared to the control implants (80.88 ± 7.51%) (p =.010). Similarly comparable and non-inferior were the fBIC values, except for the 6-week outcome, which showed statistically higher values for the test (−546.5 ± 450.80 μm) compared to the control implants (−75.7 ± 100.59 μm). fBIC results for the test implants were qualitatively more stable and consistent between test time points. Conclusion: Novel self-cutting bone-level test implants demonstrated superior osseointegration and similar bone levels compared to conventional bone-level implants after a healing period of 12 weeks in healed ridges.