Crestal bone loss due to abutment manipulation and an internal silver deposition implant design in a canine model

Objective The study aimed to evaluate the effect of internal silver coating as a countermeasure to crestal bone loss around implants with or without multiple abutment disconnections/reconnections. Materials and methods Following tooth extraction, 48 implants with connected healing abutments (24 implants internally coated with elemental silver) were placed in the mandible of eight beagle dogs. Two months after implant surgery one side of the mandible was randomly assigned to four abutment manipulations (disconnection/reconnection) on a weekly basis. At 4 months postoperative, biopsies were obtained and prepared for histomorphometric analysis. Results Healing abutment manipulation increased crestal bone remodeling when compared to no abutment manipulation (1.28 mm versus 0.92 mm, respectively), although the difference was not statistically significant ( p = 0.0836). Overall, an internal silver coating did not provide a statistically sufficient implant treatment characteristic as a countermeasure to crestal bone loss ( p = 0.7801). Conclusions These findings indicate that the controlled variables explored here (abutment manipulation/internal silver coating) have a limited effect on initial crestal bone loss. Clinical relevance Abutment manipulation during prosthetic work does not seem to harm the peri-implant soft and hard tissues.