Clinical studies on Replace® Select Tapered and Straight Implants

The Replace® implants are available with a straight and a tapered body, and with two different surfaces: TiUnite™ and HA. The documentation referred to below consists of articles and abstracts published, or accepted for publication, in scientific journals.

The TiUnite® surface was introduced on the market in the year 2000. It has proven to support the healing process and to better preserve implant stability during healing in both experimental and clinical studies (1-28). Numerous studies have evaluated the clinical performance of TiUnite® implants, in various clinical and preclinical situations using different types of protocol and with various follow-up times(29-59).

Five-year data have recently been published, demonstrating good long-term results for TiUnite® implants (9).

The HA-coated surface has been documented in long-term studies including more than 3600 implants placed in about 1400 patients followed for 5 years after prosthetic loading. The results show high cumulative implant success rates, between 95 and 98% (60-64). Published articles with short-term results (1-2 years) on the HA-coated implants, used in single-stage surgery and early or immediate function, show the same high implant success rates (70-80).

Histological evaluations of retrieved HA-coated implants in humans show that the Replace® HA-coating is not prone to resorption or dissolution in contact with bone tissue (81-84).

The Replace® Select implant with a tapered design was introduced on the market in 1997 and has been documented in several clinical studies (73-80, 85-92). In most of these studies, single-stage surgery and immediate function were applied, and the implants were often placed directly into extraction sockets (73-80). The results show high cumulative implant success rates, between 97 and 100 %, after 1 year of prosthetic loading.

The Replace® Select straight implants have the same body design as the Brånemark System® implants. This implant design is extensively documented in the many long-term (up to 20 years follow-up), prospective clinical studies performed over the last decades (93-133).

In June 2005, NobelReplace™ was introduced. This implant has the same implant body as the Replace Select® with the additional feature of TiUnite® surface on the entire body and grooves on threads and collar.

Clinical studies on NobelReplace™ are currently ongoing (134-135).