Special Print 2009 – Becker J. et al.

Fig. 3 Histological specimens in the lingual (left) and buccal (right) direction after 6 months of healing (Masson Goldner stain) showing stable crestal bone levels at implants with matching and non-matching healing abutments (pictures by courtesy of J. Becker and F. Schwarz) While at 8 weeks the wound healing was characterized mainly by parallel fibered bone, at 12 weeks the depo- sition was predominated by mature lamellar bone. Bone loss tended to be slightly increased for the control im- plants compared to the platform switched implants as was measured by the distance between implant shoul- der and crestal bone level (IS-BC). At 12 weeks, the difference of IS-BC between control and test implants was at the buccal aspect 0.5mm and at the lingual as- pect 0.4mm (p < 0.05; unpaired t-test), respectively. A similar result could be observed at 24 weeks when re- modelling at the alveolar crestal bone seemed to de- cline (Fig 3). The difference of IS-BC between both groups was settling down to approximately 0.3mm. Fig. 3a Implant with standard healing abutment (control) Fig. 3b Implant with non- matching healing abutment (platform switching) Conclusion The data of this animal study demonstrate that the new CAMLOG implants (K-Series) when placed 0.4 mm supracrestally in their standard or in their platform switching configuration successfully integrate into hard and soft tissue. Both bone remodelling as well as soft tissue adaption appear to be minimal at the implant- abutment interface during the first 8 weeks of os- seointegration and considerably less pronounced after 6 months resulting in a stable crestal bone level. The platform switching implants tended to yield better re- sults regarding maintenance of the bone level. Further studies are ongoing.