Digital Smile Designed Computer-Aided Surgery versus Traditional Workflow in “All on Four” Rehabilitations: A Randomized Clinical Trial with 4-Years Follow-Up

Francesca Cattoni, Luca Chirico, Alberto Merlone, Michele Manacorda, Raffaele Vinci and Enrico Felice Gherlone
Additional contact information
Francesca Cattoni: Department of Dentistry, IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital, 20132 Milan, Italy
Luca Chirico: Department of Dentistry, IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital, 20132 Milan, Italy
Alberto Merlone: Department of Dentistry, IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital, 20132 Milan, Italy
Michele Manacorda: Department of Dentistry, IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital, 20132 Milan, Italy
Raffaele Vinci: Department of Dentistry, IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital, 20132 Milan, Italy
Enrico Felice Gherlone: Department of Dentistry, IRCCS San Raffaele Hospital, 20132 Milan, Italy

IJERPH, 2021, vol. 18, issue 7, 1-18

Abstract: The aim of the present study was to evaluate and compare the traditional “All on Four” technique with digital smile designed computer-aided “All on Four” rehabilitation; with a 4-years follow-up. The protocol was applied to a total of 50 patients randomly recruited and divided in two groups. Digital protocol allows for a completely virtual planning of the exact position of the fixtures, which allows one to perform a flapless surgery procedure with great accuracy (mini-invasive surgery) and also it is possible to use virtually planned prostheses realized with Computer-Aided Design/Computer-Aided Manufacturing (CAD/CAM) (methods for an immediate loading of the implants. After 4 years from the treatments 98% of success were obtained for the group of patients treated with the traditional protocol and 100% for the digital protocol. At each time interval a significant difference in peri-implant crestal bone loss between the two groups was detected; with an average Marginal Bone Loss (MBL) at 4 years of 1.12 ± 0.26 mm in the traditional group and 0.83 ± 0.11 mm in the digital group. Patients belonging to the digital group have judged the immediate loading (92%), digital smile preview (93%), the mock-up test (98%) and guided surgery (94%) as very effective. All patients treated with a digital method reported lower values of during-surgery and post-surgery pain compared to patients rehabilitated using traditional treatment. In conclusion, the totally digital protocol described in the present study represents a valid therapeutic alternative to the traditional “All on Four” protocol for implant-supported rehabilitations of edentulous dental arches.

Keywords: dental implant; digital dentistry; full-arch rehabilitations; All on Four; implant survival; implant-prosthodontic restorations (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (2)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/7/3449/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/18/7/3449/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jijerp:v:18:y:2021:i:7:p:3449-:d:524673

Access Statistics for this article

IJERPH is currently edited by Ms. Jenna Liu

More articles in IJERPH from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().