A Comparison of Peripheral Marginal Bone Loss at Dental Implants Measured With Conventional Intraoral Film and Digitized Radiographs

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of conventional and bone-condensing implantation techniques and time (6 and 12 months after implantation) on levels of marginal bone surrounding implants and to assess the level of agreement between measurements made using digitized intraoral images and film. The study group consisted of 14 healthy patients (9 female, 5 male; age range, 23-59 years; mean age, 41.1 years) with 28 single-tooth dental implants. In each patient, an implant was placed on one side using a conventional technique and on the opposite side using a bone-condensing technique. Film radiographs were taken at 6 and 12 months following implant placement and were digitized at 300 dpi and 600 dpi using a laser scanner. All scanned images were stored as both TIFF and JPEG files. A single observer twice measured distal and mesial marginal bone loss from film and digitized images. At the mesial site, there was a significant main effect of time (6 and 12 months after implantation) on the measurement of bone loss, F(1, 26) = 6.08, P=.02, but no significant main effect of implantation technique, F(1, 26) = 1.56, P=.223, and no significant interaction between time and technique, F(1, 26) = 2.09, P=.160. Similarly, at the distal site, there was a significant main effect of time on the measurement of bone loss, F(1, 26) = 14.1, P=.001, but no significant main effect of implantation technique, F(1, 26) = 1.21, P=.281. However, in contrast to the mesial site, there was also significant interaction between technique and time on the distal site, F(1, 26) = 4.974, P=.035. Intraobserver intraclass correlation coefficients and repeatability measurements showed high agreement for all image types. The bone-condensing technique resulted in greater marginal bone loss. Marginal bone measurements made using digitized intraoral images and conventional film showed high levels of agreement.