Purpose :
Clinical and radiographic evaluation of early loaded four splinted mini dental implants (MDIs) with two different bar designs for assisting mandibular complete overdenture.
Materials and Methods: Twenty completely edentulous patients (10 males and 10 females) with mean age of 52.5 years old were selected for this study.All patients received four mini implants in the mandibular interforaminal area. Patients were assigned into two equal groups according to splinting bar design, where it was milled bar for Group I and round bar joint for Group II. Maxillary complete denture was constructed for each patient against implant assisted mandibular overdenture. Periimplant soft tissue health parameters were monitored and cervical bone height changes were evaluated through standardized periapical radiographs just after loading of mini implants and 6, 12, 24 and 36 months later as represented by (T 0), (T6), (T12), (T24), and (T 36) respectively. Results: Insignificant difference of all peri-implant soft tissue health arameters was observed over time within each group and between the two groups at all observational times. Peri-implant marginal bone resorption was significantly higher in group I in comparison to group II at T 6, T12 and T36. Significant difference was found between T0 and T6 in both groups and also between T24 and T36 in group I.
Conclusions: Both milled and round bar splints can provide a satisfactory clinical outcome for early loaded mini implants assisting mandibular complete overdenture. However, splinting with milled bars seems to be associated with a higher rate of peri-implant marginal bone loss.