Introduction: Completely edentulous patients usually have many problems associated with their mandibular complete dentures. Dental implants solved many of these problems. Many attachments are used nowadays to retain mandibular overdenture to dental implants. Among these attachments are the low profile locator and equator attachments. This study was conducted to study the effect of both attachments on bone level around two implants retaining complete mandibular overdenture.
Methodology: This study was conducted on 10 completely edentulous patients. Two implants were installed in the canine region bilaterally for all patients. Patients were then randomly divided into two groups where the first group received implant supported mandibular overdenture retained by locator attachment, while the other group received implant supported mandibular overdenture retained with equator attachment. The patients were then referred to oral and maxillofacial radiology department, Faculty of Dentistry, Cairo University for radiographic assessment to measure the bone height and density changes around the implant at the day of overdenture delivery and 12 months later.
Results: In the current study, bone height changes in both groups was in the clinically permissible range. Regarding bone density, it increased gradually around the loaded implants in both groups. When density is compared between the two groups, the locator attachment group showed significant increase when compared to the equator attachment group after 12 months of prosthetic loading.
Conclusions: Within the limitation of this study, both locator and equator attachments are viable treatment options to retain an implant supported mandibular complete overdenture regarding hard tissue response around the implants but more studies with more extended follow up is recommended.