Evaluation of Titanium Frames for Fixed Dentures or Overdentures Supported by Dental Implants

Project location: ITALY
Project start date: October 2003 - Project end date: October 2006
Project number: 2003-05
Beneficiary: Associazione Odontoiatri Cattolici Italiani

A pilot study on 200 patients comparing gold and titanium alloys prosthesis

The Nando Peretti Foundation financed the department of Periodontics and implant dentistry of the Eastman Dental Hospital in Rome trough the Associazione Odontoiatri Cattolici Italiani (O.C.I.) for carrying out a research oriented to evaluate the possibility of utilizing titanium alloys instead of gold for the metallic frame of the dentures. Titanium is the most bio-compatible metal in nature, and since dental implants are made of titanium, corrosion problems are avoided if the same metal is used for implants and prosthesis.

(below) These pictures refer to specialised instruments financed by the NPF.

Moreover titanium is very cheap when compared to gold, so using titanium instead of gold could reduce of approximately 70% the costs of our prostheses. This new situation could increase enormously the number of patients, that are mainly old people without active work, that can be treated with this technique. If the results of this research are positive this technique may reduce the cost of this very effective rehabilitation that is currently not provided to poor people only for economic reasons.

One hundred edentulous patients will be treated with the insertion of 4 dental implants in the edentulous mandible. They will be provided with bar retained overdentures. A random selection of patients will be done so as to provide 50% of them with a gold prosthesis (control group) and 50% with a titanium one (test group). One hundred edentulous patients will be treated with the insertion of 6 dental implants in the edentulous mandible. They will be provided with a fixed prosthesis (Toronto Bridge) . A random selection of patients will be done so as to provide 50% of them with a gold prosthesis (control group) and 50% with a titanium one (test group). Clinical results will be evaluated with x-rays and clinical parameters, evaluations will be done at 6,12,24,36 months post op. Precision of the titanium cast on the plaster models will be evaluated with electron microscopy (SEM).