Swiss-Swedish Nobel Biocare`s Teeth-in-an-Hour implant system may carry more risk of complications than conventional methods, an abstract of a study by Sweden`s Karolinska Institutet showed on Saturday.
The study examined 31 patients treated using the method, which uses computer modeling to reduce implant installation time and showed that complications such as the loss of fixtures and the need for adjustments arose for nearly a third.
Nine percent of the 175 fixtures examined were lost, said Bjorn Klinge, professor of periodontology at Karolinska Institutet and one of the study`s authors.
This compared with a loss rate of roughly 2 to 3 percent using conventional and more time-consuming methods, he added.
“My assessment is that this is still at the trial stage and therefore can`t be recommended for general use,” Klinge told Reuters.
“Our data shows rather unequivocally that there is a lot of development left before one can say if this is a good or a bad product,” he added.
The study, presented at a dental conference in Venice on Saturday, has not yet been published in a scientific journal or peer-reviewed, but Klinge said an article was being prepared.