Resumen de Narrow-diameter implants: are they a predictable treatment option? A literature review

José Luis Sierra Sánchez, Amparo Martínez González, Fernando García-Sala Bonmatí, José Félix Mañes Ferrer, Alejandro Brotóns Oliver

• Objective: To evaluate the predictability of narrow-diameter implants as a treatment option in routine clinical practice. A literature review was performed of studies reporting clinical results obtained with these implants.

  Survival rates, peri-implant bone loss and related complications were evaluated. The working hypothesis was that narrow-diameter implants offer clinical results similar to those obtained with implants of greater diameter.

  Material and Methods: A Medline-PubMed search covering the period between 2002 and 2012 was carried out.

  Studies published in English and with a follow-up period of at least 12 months were considered for inclusion. A manual search was also conducted in different journals with an important impact factor.

  Results: Twenty-one studies meeting the screening criteria were included in the literature review. A total of 2980 narrow-diameter implants placed in 1607 patients were analyzed.

  Conclusions: The results obtained from the literature indicate that narrow-diameter implants are a predictable treatment option, since they afford clinical results comparable to those obtained with implants of greater diameter.