Short Dental Implants: An Emerging Therapeutic Option in Implant Dentistry Avni Sharma1,*, Agarwal S.K. Col2, Devendra Chopra3 1P.G. Student 2Prof. & Head, Department of Prosthodontics, ITS Dental College & Hospital, Muradnagar 3Reader, Department of Prosthodontics, Saraswati Dental College, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh *Address for Correspondence:, Dr. Avni Sharma, P.G. Student, Department of Prosthodontics, ITS Dental College & Hospital Muradnagar, Gaziabad, U.P.
Online published on 25 April, 2017. Abstract Rehabilitating patients with atrophic ridges presents several challenges when the treatment plan involves the placement of endosseous implants. In such situations implant treatment options usually comprise of complex procedures such as bone reconstruction or sinus lift procedures. However, these techniques have their own potential disadvantages. Thus an alternative treatment modality has emerged advocating the use of Short implants in the clinical situations where the use of conventional implants is limited. The purpose of this review is to give the clinician an in depth view on the dilemma surrounding shorter implants being a valid therapeutic option as opposed to conventional implants that has caused hesitation regarding its use since several years. An extensive literature search of published literature was performed using the keywords dental/oral implant, length, diameter, short dental implant, survival rate, implant size <10, <8, <7 mm from January 1990 to April 2016 in Medline, PubMed, Google scholar. All the relevant articles and their references were analyzed. This non-systematic review recapitulates and discusses certain facets of the indications of short implants, such as: importance of a wider diameter implant to compensate for a shorter length, success rate, longevity, prosthetic factors to be considered while treatment planning and also improved surface modifications as far as use of short implants is concerned. The available studies offers an effective validation for placement of short implants as long as one understands the limitations, indications, risk factors, and limited studies having shorter follow-up periods with regard to the success rates of short implants. Top Keywords Dental Implants, Follow-Up Studies, Humans, Mandible/surgery, Maxilla/surgery. Top |