Immediate placement of implants in tooth extraction sockets in the presence of periapical lesions with or without Er:YAG laser irradiation

Different clinical studies have reported high survival rates in immediate implant placement in extraction sockets with periapical lesions. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of Er:YAG laser irradiation on success rate of immediate implant placement in tooth extraction sockets with chronic periapical lesions. Thirty patients requiring a single-root tooth extraction with chronic periapical lesions were included in this prospective, randomized, clinical trial and divided into control (n=15) and test (n=15) groups. After tooth extraction, the implant were placed with guided bone regeneration in the control group after periapical curettage and socket irrigation and in the test group, irrigation of the periapical region was accompanied with Er:YAG laser for 1 min at 100 mJ, 10 Hz, 12.73 J/cm2. Radiographic (using standard long-cone parallel) and clinical parameters (plaque index [PI], modified bleeding index [mBI], probing depth [PD], keratinized mucosa [KM], Periotest values [PTV]) were assessed at baseline and 1, 3 and 6 months after implant placement. Data was analyzed with t-test and chi-squared test. The level of significance was set at 5%.A survival rate of 100% was observed for all the implants placed at the sixth-month follow-up, with no significant differences between clinical and radiographic parameters of the control and test groups at different time intervals (P>0.05). At 6-month follow-up, there were no complications in soft and hard tissue healing processes after immediate placement of implants into fresh extraction sockets with chronic periapical lesions, regardless of Er:YAG laser irradiation.