Background: Primary stability is crucial to implants used for orthodontic anchorage. Bone condensing to enhance primary stability is controversial.
Material and methods: Fourteen Frialit-2-stepped screw and cylinder implants were placed in the median palatine sutures of 22 cadaveric human heads. In half of both types, the implant bed was prepared using a Frialit Bone Condenser. Primary implant stability was evaluated using non-invasive resonance frequency analysis. Moreover, the bone-implant contact area was examined histomorphometrically and radiographically.
Results: Bone condensing yielded a slightly, yet not significantly increased implant stability quotient compared with a conventional technique. In spongy bone, a significant histomorphometric increase of bone-implant contact (P<0.0001) and a significant increase of radiographic density was revealed for both implant types, while no significant changes were observed within the compact area.
Conclusion: The study shows that bone condensing yields an improved histologic implant-bone contact only in spongy bone, which was paralleled by radiographic-densitometric findings.