Thepresent study aims to evaluate the influence of apicocoronal position and immediate and conventional loading in the percentage\nof bone-implant contact (BIC). Thus, 36 implants were inserted in the edentulous mandible from six dogs. Three implants were\ninstalled in each hemimandible, in different positions in relation to the ridge: Bone Level (at crestal bone level), Minus 1 (one\nmillimeter apical to crestal bone), and Minus 2 (two millimeters apical to crestal bone). In addition, each hemimandible was\nsubmitted to a loading protocol: immediate (prosthesis installed 24 hours after implantation) or conventional (prosthesis installed\n120 days after implantation). Ninety days after, animals were killed, and implant and adjacent tissues were prepared for histometric\nanalysis. BICvalues fromimmediate loaded implantswere 58.7%, 57.7%, and 51.1%, respectively,while conventional loaded implants\nwere 61.8%, 53.8%, and 68.4%. Differences statistically significant were not observed among groups (P = 0.10, ANOVA test). These\nfindings suggest that different apicocoronal positioning and loading protocols evaluated did not interfere in the percentage of boneimplant\ncontact, suggesting that these procedures did not jeopardize osseointegration.
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