Feasibility of immediate placement of single‐tooth implants in the aesthetic zone: a 1‐year randomized controlled trial

AIM: To assess whether outcome of immediate implant placement and immediate provisionalization after 1 year was non-inferior to immediate implant placement and delayed provisionalization regarding Marginal Bone Level (MBL). MATERIALS AND METHODS: Forty patients with a failing tooth in the aesthetic zone were randomly assigned for immediate implant placement with immediate (n = 20) or delayed (n = 20) provisionalization. Follow-up was at 1 month and after 1 year. The study was powered to detect a difference in MBL of <0.9 mm. Apart from MBL, soft tissue peri-implant parameters, aesthetic indexes and patient satisfaction were assessed. RESULTS: After 1 year, MBL changes were -0.75 ± 0.69 mesially and -0.68 ± 0.65 distally mm for the immediate group and -0.70 ± 0.64 and -0.68 ± 0.64 mm for the delayed group respectively (NS). Regarding differences in means, non-inferiority was observed after 1 year (mesially: Group A versus B: difference in mean 0.08 mm (95% CI -0.38 to 0.53, p = 0.71 distally: Group A versus B: difference in mean 0.09 mm (95% CI -0.37 to 0.56 mm, p = 0.66).No significant differences in the other outcome variables were observed. CONCLUSIONS: This study showed that immediate placement and immediate provisionalization was non-inferior to immediate placement with delayed provisionalization. In addition, although not powered for these outcome variables, no clinically relevant differences in other outcomes were observed (www.isrtcn.com: ISRCTN57251089).