Patient satisfaction and esthetic outcome after immediate placement and provisionalization of single-tooth implants involving a definitive individual abutment.

OBJECTIVES: To assess patient satisfaction and esthetic outcome after immediate placement and provisionalization of single-tooth implants involving a definitive individual abutment and a provisional crown followed by later placement of a definitive crown.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: In private practice, a single-tooth implant was placed immediately after tooth extraction in the esthetic zone of 54 patients. A definitive individual abutment and a provisional crown were mounted in the same visit. The definitive crown was placed after a mean period of 7 months. After a mean follow-up period of 33 months, the subjective and professional evaluation of the total implant treatment, peri-implant soft tissues, and implant crown were assessed on a 10-cm visual analog scale (VAS). The professional esthetic treatment outcome was also evaluated using pink esthetic score (PES), white esthetic score (WES), and total score of PES/WES.

RESULTS: The evaluation of total implant treatment, peri-implant soft tissues, and implant crown demonstrated a significantly higher subjective than professional score for all 3 parameters (P < 0.001), for example, for the overall treatment, the mean scores were 9.4 and 7.0, respectively. A significant positive correlation was revealed between the professional VAS scores and the PESs and WESs.

CONCLUSIONS: Immediate placement and provisionalization of single-tooth implants involving a definitive individual abutment and provisional crown followed by later placement of a definitive crown demonstrated high subjective and professional satisfaction. Generally, the professionals seem to be more critical than the patients. A strong correlation was observed between the professional VAS scores and the PES and WES scoring systems.