Is the osseointegration of immediately and delayed loaded implants the same?—comparison of the implant stability during a 3‐month healing period in a prospective study

OBJECTIVES: The objectives of the present study were (1) to compare the stability of delayed loaded (DL) and immediately loaded (IL) ITI SLA implants during the first 3 months of the healing period using resonance frequency analysis (RFA) and (2) to determine the factors that affect implant stability during the healing period. MATERIALS AND METHODS: To compare implant stability, RFA was performed on two groups of patients (12 patients received 25 IL implants and 47 patients received 79 DL implants) with a total 104 ITI SLA implants. Implant stability was measured directly by RFA at implant placement and consecutively once a week for 12 weeks. Statistical analyses were carried out to study implant stability differences between IL and DL groups. RESULTS: One of the 25 implants in the IL group failed, and no implant was lost in the DL group. Implant stability between the IL and DL groups showed a statistically significant difference (P<0.05). The mean implant stability quotient of all measured implants from implant insertion to 12 weeks was 72.88 +/- 5.39 for the DL and 75.86 +/- 3.60 for the IL types. The lowest stability was at 4 weeks for DL implants (mean: 71.58 +/- 5.11) and 2 weeks for IL implants (mean: 71.33 +/- 2.97). In both groups, bone types I and II showed higher implant stability than bone type III (P<0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The findings of this study indicate that differences in osseointegration between IL and DL implants may be predicted according to differential implant stability.