One of the key stages of the implant placement procedure is dental implant healing or osseointegration. When this process is successfully completed and it is allowed to perform a tooth- replacement procedure, only then we may talk about the successful results of dental implantation. But above all, we must still get a clear answer to the question whether the healing of bone around a dental implant has already happened. Many patients are very concerned about the healing time required for implant osseointegration to be successfully completed.
The standard healing time in delayed implant placement takes 4 months for the lower and 6 months – for the upper jaw. The time contrast is explained by the difference in the structure of the bone tissue and levels of loading transmitted to the chewing surface of the teeth of the upper and lower jaws.
However, in practice the healing times for dental implants may vary. Only an implantologist can evaluate the degree of implant osseointegration at a particular stage of dental restoration, because he has all necessary instruments and methods for it. In addition, it should be understood that even today most of these methods are quite subjective and their application requires considerable experience of observing the “behavior” of implants in the process of healing, which again confirms the idea of the importance to choose a highly qualified specialist in dealing with dental implants
X-ray techniques allow to determine the healing phase, evaluate the state of bone tissue around the implant and presence or absence of intensive pathological processes, if they are occurring. However, it is not enough as well as percussion testing when an implantologist checks the implant stability simply tapping its surface with a solid object and examines it while placing healing abutment. These methods are really quite subjective, as hearing abilities of people are different when it comes to the percussion testing and one can determine the level of bone-implant healing visually by screwing – placing an abutment on it: if there are any features of implant mobility, it has to be reinstalled.
Is this evaluation method good enough? When should it be repeated? Are there any more accurate methods? One of more objective methods is the method of frequency – resonance analysis, which is carried out at any stage and at any time after the implant placement. It is particularly actual for immediate loading technique when a different amount of healing time is required for osseointegration and loading takes place within one-two days after the implant has integrated into the bone. The resonance frequency analysis of implant stability or osseointegration is the closest to the percussion method but it is based on processed readings transmitted from a sensor to the computer.
Thus, to determine the degree of integration between the implant and the bone is very important and the specialists of the company Bio3 Implants recommend to use modern high-tech evaluation methods for this purpose.