Intraoral Welding to Increase the Predictability of Implant Placement?

Failure of implants can be caused by micromotion and stress exerted on the implants during the healing phase. This risk is especially acute in immediate loading cases. Improved primary stability can be achieved via welding titanium bars on implant abutments directly in the mouth, in a technique known as intraoral welding. But, is the technique also beneficial when using computer-guided implant placement. A recent study¹, tackled this question when investigating implant placement in 10 patients. The implants were functionally loaded using the intraoral welding technique on the day of surgery.

The conclusion:

Despite the inaccuracy registered, this guided-welded approach allowed successful achievement of a passive fit of the full-arch prosthesis on the inserted implants the same day of the surgery and provided a high implant and prosthetic survival rate at the 1-year follow-up.

Does anyone have experience with intraoral welding in immediate loading cases? What are your thoughts on the technique and it’s potential?

(Editor’s note: You may also be interested in these prior two cases: Intraoral Welding to Achieve Predictable Primary Stability in Immediate Loading and Immediate Implant placement, sinus lifts and function

1.Stability of implants placed in fresh sockets versus healed alveolar sites: Early findings. Use of Intraoral Welding to Increase the Predictability of Immediately Loaded Computer-Guided Implants. Albiero AM, et al.