Is It Safe to Reuse Healing Abutments? An Experimental Study on IL-1 beta and TNF-alpha Cytokine Levels in Peri-Implant Crevicular Fluid

Purpose To compare pro-inflammatory cytokine levels in the peri-implant crevicular fluid (PICF) in unused and reused healing abutments. Materials and methods This study was a controlled randomized, double-blind clinical trial. Seventy-two patients who met the inclusion criteria were divided into two groups. After one-stage implant placement, in group A, an unused healing abutment, and in group B, a reused healing abutment, was connected to the implant fixture. After 2 months, clinical measurements for keratinized gingiva (KG), plaque index (PI), and bleeding index (BI) (Ainamo and Bay) were taken, and PICF sampling was performed to evaluate pro-inflammatory IL-1 beta and TNF-alpha cytokine levels using the ELISA test. Comparison of clinical measurements and cytokine levels between the two study groups was made using the Mann-Whitney test. Result Clinical measurements and sampling were performed on 60 patients (nA = 27, nB = 33). There was no significant difference between the two groups in clinical measurements (BI (p = 0.96) and PI (p = 0.06)) or TNF-alpha (p = 0.63), and IL-1 beta (p = 0.26) cytokine levels. Conclusion Reused healing abutments that are cleaned and sterilized properly do not appear to induce further peri-implant pro-inflammatory response; therefore, they can be utilized temporarily until implant abutment insertion.