The behavior of polyetheretherketone healing abutments when measuring implant stability with electronic percussive testing.

BACKGROUND: It is unknown whether it is possible to measure implant stability with polyetheretherketone (PEEK) healing abutments using electronic percussive testing (EPT).

PURPOSE: To investigate the reliability of the percussive test values (PTVs) measured with PEEK healing abutments and to compare them with the PTVs measured with titanium healing abutments.

MATERIAL AND METHODS: Thirty dental implants were inserted into the fresh pelvis belonging to a cow. Titanium healing abutments (2 and 5 mm), PEEK healing abutments (5 mm), and prepable standard titanium abutments (5 mm) were screwed to the implants, respectively, and PTVs were measured by two examiners using a wireless EPT device. Differences in PTVs between different dental implant components were evaluated using Friedman's test with post hoc Wilcoxon signed-rank test and Bonferroni correction. Inter and intra-observer reliabilities were detected using interclass correlation coefficients (ICCs) RESULTS: The mean PTVs obtained using the PEEK healing abutments were significantly higher than the mean PTVs obtained using the other abutments for both examiners (P < .01). The ICCs for intra-observer reliability were detected as poor for PEEK healing abutments; and excellent for the other abutment types for both examiners. The ICCs for the inter-observer reliability between the two examiners were poor (0.25) for PEEK healing abutments, and excellent for the 2 and 5 mm titanium healing abutments and for standard abutments (0.82, 0.84 and 0.93, respectively).

CONCLUSION: Within the limitations of this in vitro study, it may be concluded that EPT measurements should be avoided using PEEK healing abutments because of the poor reliability.