Objectives: The objective of this systematic review was to assess the 5‐ and 10‐year survival of implant‐supported fixed dental prostheses (FDPs) and to describe the incidence of biological and technical complications.Methods: An electronic Medline search complemented by manual searching was conducted to identify prospective and retrospective cohort studies and case series on FDPs with a mean follow‐up time of at least 5 years. Patients had to have been examined clinically at the follow‐up visit. Failure and complication rates were analyzed using standard and random‐effects Poisson regression models to obtain summary estimates of 5‐year and 10‐year survival and complication rates.Results: The updated search provided 979 titles and 257 abstracts. Full‐text analysis was performed for 90 articles resulting in a total 32 studies that met the inclusion criteria. Meta‐analysis of these studies indicated an estimated survival of implants supporting FDPs of 95.6% after 5 years and 93.1% after 10 years. When machined surface implants were excluded from the analysis and only rough surface implants included, the survival rate increased to 97.2% after 5 years. The survival rate of implant‐supported FDPs was 95.4% after 5 years and 80.1% after 10 years of function. When the analysis was done exclusively for metal–ceramic FDPs, hence the old gold–acrylic FDPs were excluded, the survival rate increased significantly. The survival rate of metal–ceramic implant‐supported FDPs was 96.4% after 5 years and 93.9% after 10 years. Only 66.4% of the patients were free of any complications after 5 years. The most frequent complications over the 5‐year observation period were fractures of the veneering material (13.5%), peri‐implantitis and soft tissue complications (8.5%), loss of access hole restoration (5.4%), abutment or screw loosening (5.3%), and loss of retention of cemented FDPs (4.7%).Conclusion: It may be concluded that implant‐supported fixed dental prostheses (FDPs) are a safe and predictable treatment method with high survival rates. However, biological and technical complications were frequent (33.6%). To minimize the incidence of complications, dental professionals should make great effort in choosing reliable components and materials for implant‐supported FDPs and the patients should be placed in well‐structured maintenance system after treatment.
Objective: To review the dental literature in terms of soft tissue augmentation procedures and their influence on peri‐implant health or disease in partially and fully edentulous patients.Methods: A MEDLINE search from 1966 to 2016 was performed to identify controlled clinical studies comparing soft tissue grafting versus no soft tissue grafting (maintenance) or two types of soft tissue grafting procedures at implant sites. The soft tissue grafting procedures included either an increase of keratinized tissue or an increase of the thickness of the peri‐implant mucosa. Studies reporting on the peri‐implant tissue health, as assessed by bleeding or gingival indices, were included in the review. The search was complemented by an additional hand search of all selected full‐text articles and reviews published between 2011 and 2016. The initial search yielded a total number of 2,823 studies. Eligible studies were selected based on the inclusion criteria (finally included: four studies on gain of keratinized tissue; six studies on gain of mucosal thickness) and quality assessments conducted. Meta‐analyses were applied whenever possible.Results: Soft tissue grafting procedures for gain of keratinized tissue resulted in a significantly greater improvement of gingival index values compared to maintenance groups (with or without keratinized tissue) [n = 2; WMD = 0.863; 95% CI (0.658; 1.067); p < .001]. For final marginal bone levels, statistically significant differences were calculated in favor of an apically positioned flap (APF) plus autogenous grafts versus all control treatments (APF alone; APF plus a collagen matrix; maintenance without intervention [with or without residual keratinized tissue]) [n = 4; WMD = −0.175 mm; 95% CI: (−0.313; −0.037); p = .013]. Soft tissue grafting procedures for gain of mucosal thickness did not result in significant improvements in bleeding indices over time, but in significantly less marginal bone loss over time [WMD = 0.110; 95% CI: 0.067; 0.154; p < .001] and a borderline significance for marginal bone levels at the study endpoints compared to sites without grafting.Conclusions: Within the limitations of this review, it was concluded that soft tissue grafting procedures result in more favorable peri‐implant health: (i) for gain of keratinized mucosa using autogenous grafts with a greater improvement of bleeding indices and higher marginal bone levels; (ii) for gain of mucosal thickness using autogenous grafts with significantly less marginal bone loss.