Implant placement and loading protocols are changing [1]. There is a growing tendency to place single tooth implants immediately after the extraction of a failing tooth, especially in the maxillary aesthetic region, and preferably combined with immediate provisionalization [2,3,4,5,6]. This tendency is related to evolving society factors, including more demanding patients and a wish for direct treatment, whereupon innovations in implant surfaces and designs are facilitating the possibilities [7, 8]. Despite systematic reviews pointing out that there is a slightly higher risk of early implant loss compared to delayed implant placement, immediate implant placement in extraction sites is now presumed to be a reliable treatment option for single tooth implants [1, 2, 9].

It must be mentioned, however, that the majority of studies on immediate implant placement are related to the maxillary aesthetic region. Immediate implant placement in the posterior region is studied much less, probably because those patients are less demanding and due to the different anatomical features of the extraction socket compared to that of the single-rooted teeth in the anterior maxilla [10, 11]. Nevertheless, two systematic reviews mention that high survival rates have also been reported for immediate implant placement in molar regions [12, 13]. Although it was suggested that wide diameter implants may have better results in the molar region than regular diameter implants [13, 14]), they also were associated with a high failure rate [15]. Based on current published controlled studies, there is still a lack of evidence for an optimal immediate implant placement protocol in the molar region. Therefore, the aim of this prospective case series study was to evaluate immediate implant placement in molar post-extraction sites during a 1-year follow-up period.