Effect of Access Hole Preparation on Retention of Cemented Implant-Supported Crowns: An In Vitro Study

Removing cement-retained implant-supported crowns for repair or modification is one of the challenges in dental treatments. Using an access cavity in the crown to reach the abutment screw is one of the procedures proposed for recovering cement-retained dental implants. This study aimed to evaluate the retention rate of crowns having access cavity in a cemented-retained implants-supported prosthesis.

In this laboratory study, 60 casting metal crowns were created and separated into two groups (n=30 per group); with and without access cavity. The crowns were created using the Pro Dent 3D printer and the samples were linked to the universal testing equipment to analyze the retention rate after cementing with temp bond cement. Data were analyzed in SPSS V16 using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test to determine the normality of data distribution and the t-test to compare the values between the two groups.

The mean retention in control group was 42.641±8.91.67 Newton, whereas it was 40.876±7.76333 Newton in crowns with access cavity. The rates were not significantly different between the two groups (P>0.05).

Preparing an access cavity in the crown has no effect on the retention of cement-retained implant-supported crowns. Therefore, cement-retained implant-supported crowns with retrievability characteristics can provide several benefits.