Is Implant Therapy Effective for Functional Recovery of Patients with Maxillary Defect?

Abstract

Background: Implant therapy can be an effective option for prosthetic treatment for intractable cases with maxillary defect. The aim of this review was to elucidate the effectiveness of implant therapy for patients with maxillary defect.
Methods: A systematic literature survey was conducted by the Japan Medical Library Association based on keywords for PubMed and Ichushi-web presented by the Clinical Practice Guideline Committee of Japanese Academy of Maxillofacial Prosthetics. After secondary screening, relating articles were extracted and their structured abstracts were described for discussion.
Results: RCTs and meta-analyses were not found, and many articles were clinical reports based on a single case report or case accumulation study. After the second screening, 17 papers were extracted. From these papers, implant-supported maxillary prostheses tended to be applied to edentulous patients with large maxillary defects where stability and retention of prosthesis could not be established by conventional prostheses. Improvement of masticatory performance and speech intelligibility by implant-supported maxillary prostheses was better than that by conventional prostheses. However, the success rate of implant therapy remains controversial.
Conclusions: Implant-supported maxillary prostheses have higher stability and retention than conventional maxillary prostheses, which might be useful to improve the masticatory performance and speech intelligibility of post-maxillectomy patients.