Objectives: The objective of this systematic review was to assess the 5- and 10-year survival of combined tooth-implant-supported fixed partial dentures (FPDs) and the incidence of biological and technical complications.
Methods: An electronic MEDLINE search supplemented by manual searching was conducted to identify prospective and retrospective cohort studies on FPDs with a mean follow-up time of at least 5 years. Patients had to have been examined clinically at the follow-up visit. Assessment of the identified studies and data abstraction was performed independently by two reviewers. Failure and complication rates were analyzed using random-effects Poisson regression models to obtain summary estimates of 5- and 10-year survival proportions.
Results: From a total of 3844 titles and 560 abstracts, 176 articles were selected for full-text analysis, and 13 studies met the inclusion criteria. Meta-analysis of these studies indicated an estimated survival of implants in combined tooth-implant-supported FPDs of 90.1% (95 percent confidence interval (95% CI): 82.4-94.5%) after 5 and 82.1% (95% CI: 55.8-93.6%) after 10 years. The survival rate of FPDs was 94.1% (95% CI: 90.2-96.5%) after 5 and 77.8% (95% CI: 66.4-85.7%) after 10 years of function. There was no significant difference in survival of tooth and implant abutments in combined tooth-implant FPDs. After an observation period of 5 years, 3.2% (95% CI: 1.5-7.2%) of the abutment teeth and 3.4% (95% CI: 2.2-5.3%) of the functionally loaded implants were lost. After 10 years, the corresponding proportions were 10.6% (95% CI: 3.5-23.1%) for the abutment teeth and 15.6% (95% CI: 6.5-29.5%) for the implants. After a 5 year observation period, intrusion was detected in 5.2% (95% CI: 2-13.3%) of the abutment teeth. Intrusion of abutment teeth were almost exclusively detected among non-rigid connections.
Conclusion: Survival rates of both implants and reconstructions in combined tooth-implant-supported FPDs were lower than those reported for solely implant-supported FPDs (Pjetursson et al. 2004). Hence, planning of prosthetic rehabilitation may preferentially include solely implant-supported FPDs. However, anatomical aspects, patient centered issues and risk assessments of the residual dentition may still justify combined tooth-implant-supported reconstructions. It was evident from the present search that tooth-implant-supported FPDs have not been studied to any great extent and hence, there is a definitive need for more longitudinal studies examining these reconstructions.