Michel De Cooman

The effect of micromotion on tissues surrounding immediately loaded implants

Despite promising results, premature oral implant loading remains more critical compared to the conventional delayed implant loading. Extended knowledge of the bone response around implants under varying loading conditions is essential if a prognosis equal to that of healed implants is aimed at. Implant motion relative to its surrounding bone is such an unravelled mechanical parameter and is pointed out as a crucial parameter in the prognosis of implant osseo-integration. Although some degree of micromotion is tolerated, a certain threshold should not be surpassed. This threshold is set at various levels by the different researchers. The studies, however, are difficult to com-pare due to the differences in study set-up, e.g. different surgical techniques, implant loading conditions, implant geometry, implant surface, and implantation site (related to bone quality). It was the aim of this study to investi-gate the pure influence of implant displacement on tissue differentiation, in the absence of other influencing factors. This study aims to evaluate the effect of various degrees of implant micromotion on the tissue differen-tiation around immediately loaded titanium implants.