Immediate Molar Implants With Customized Healing Abutments in Different Post-Extraction Socket Classes

Immediate implant placement into a fresh extraction socket shortens overall treatment time and reduces the number of surgical procedures, but the fit between the implant and the socket walls, and the resulting soft-tissue contour, differ substantially between socket types. This study evaluates immediate implant placement in the molar and posterior region combined with an individually fabricated (customized) healing abutment, or sulcus former, that seals the socket and shapes the emergence profile from the day of surgery. Consecutive patients with a non-restorable posterior tooth are treated with flapless atraumatic extraction, immediate implant placement, grafting of the residual gap, and a chairside customized healing abutment fabricated on a titanium temporary abutment. Participants are grouped by the class of the post-extraction socket (A, B or C) according to the interradicular septal bone available for primary stability. Outcomes are preservation of peri-implant soft-tissue volume assessed with an intraoral scanner, preservation of alveolar bone volume assessed on cone-beam computed tomography, implant stability measured by resonance frequency analysis (ISQ) at placement and before loading, and time to definitive loading. Early wound healing on the Landry index, the degree of bone corticalization before loading, implant survival, healing-abutment complications and analgesic requirement are also recorded.