The morbidity caused by bone graft harvesting and the delay in the final treatment due to the time necessary for bone incorporation triggered the development of techniques without grafting as an option for the treatment of patients with edentulous jaws. Brånemark in 1998 developed a novel technique for placing implants in the zygomatic bone to treat severely atrophic maxilla without the need for grafting, which was later modified by Stella and Warner. The later minimized the presence of the implant into the maxillary sinus, improving the emergence of the implant, since it allowed a more vertical angle than the original technique. Many prospective and retrospective studies showed good results by using the original technique, while only few researches discuss Stella and Warner’s technique. So, this retrospective study aimed to evaluate Stella and Warner’s technique, contributing to a greater scientific validation.

Fourteen patients who underwent placement of zygomatic implants were evaluated over a period ranging from 15 to 53 months, where 100 % survival rate of conventional and zygomatic implants involved in the rehabilitation was observed. This represented a survival rate compatible with Brånemark’s studies that showed a survival rate for zygomatic implants of 94.2 to 100 % after 5 to 10 years and 12 years of follow-up, respectively. Different authors reported a survival rate for these implants between 96 and 100 %. For conventional implants, some studies reported a survival rate ranging between 95 and 100 %. The findings of our study demonstrated that the technique of Stella and Warner is fairly predictable with survival and success rates compatible with the ones described in the literature, independently on the technique used.

The bone level after loading the implants was one of the criteria used in this study to assess the survival rate of conventional implants involved in the rehabilitation.