Augmentation of the maxillary sinus prior to dental implant placement is routinely performed in order to help patients restore their maxillary posterior dentition. Unfortunately, not all patients are candidates for this procedure due to either health, personal, or financial concerns. An alternative treatment without the need for a sinus elevation procedure is the use of a shorter implant. Research has shown that shorter implants (<10 mm) have comparable survival and success rates to longer implants (>10 mm). Primary implant stability, as measured at the time of placement, is another important factor for both short and long implants. Tapered implant designs are considered to provide greater initial stability. Specifically, Lozano-Carrascal et al. in a prospective clinical study compared OSP implants to tapered MIS® implants placed in human mandibles. They reported the tapered implants achieved higher primary stability measured through ISQ and insertion torque. Our study did not support these findings as we did not find a statistically significant difference in primary stability between the OSP and OSPTX implant designs. However, the OSPTX implants used in our study were tapered only at the apex as opposed to the MIS® implant which is tapered throughout the body of the implant. Furthermore, the mean insertion torque value observed in our study for the OSP group was lower (27.6 Ncm) than that observed by Lozano-Carrascal et al. in the maxilla for the same implant (35.8 Ncm). This difference may be attributed to the shorter implant length and wider diameter used in our study. The mean ISQ at insertion for the OSP implants in our study presented comparable values to an ex vivo study using the same implant placed in fresh porcine mandibles.

Surgical protocols have been developed to overcome the poor bone quality found in the posterior maxilla, so as to increase primary implant stability. Most surgical systems recommend a soft bone surgical protocol which requires a narrower diameter osteotomy than that of the implant being placed. This can involve underpreparing the complete length of the osteotomy or only underpreparing the apical ¾ of the osteotomy when the crestal bone is denser. In the posterior maxilla, the bone quality can vary greatly. By comparing the stability between the three groups, we found that implant stability was neither statistically significantly different between the two different implant designs or between the two different surgical protocols used. These findings are in agreement with Siera-Rebolledo et al., who also found no statistically significant differences between a soft bone drilling protocol and a standard drilling protocol [21].

Insertion torque presented a moderate to strong correlation with ISQ values at 6 weeks, 6 months, and 1 year but not at time of implant insertion. This finding is in agreement with Acil et al. who reported no statistically significant correlation between insertion torque and ISQ at time of implant placement.

Although a strong correlation was found between insertion torque and bone loss at all time points, the mean bone loss observed was minimal (<0.5 mm).

The OSP implant system has demonstrated high survival rates ranging from 94 up to 100% in previous long- and short-term studies. Our findings are comparable with an overall 93.3% survival rate at 1 year, despite the fact that all implants were placed in the posterior maxilla.

Survival rates and stability of OSP and OSPTX implants was comparable.

Osteotomy preparation either by the standard or by the soft bone surgical protocol had no significant effect on implant survival, success, and stability.

Insertion torque presented a moderate to strong correlation with ISQ values at 6 weeks, 6 months, and 1 year.

Insertion torque presented a weak correlation to ISQ values at time of implant insertion.