Application of dental implant robots and conventional dental implants in oral implantology – a propensity score matching study

Abstract

Introduction/Objective The aim of this study is to evaluate the application value of dental implant robot (DIR) in dental implant restoration of patients with tooth loss (TL), so as to provide reference for clinical practice.

Methods In total, 47 patients with TL who received DIR oral implantation in our hospital during the period from March 2021 to August 2023 were selected as the research subjects. By propensity score matching, according to the ratio of 1:1, the nearest neighbor matching algorithm was used to select 47 patients who received conventional oral implantation as the control group. The matching variables included age, sex, history of diabetes, history of hypertension, location of missing teeth, cause of missing teeth, and number of missing teeth. To compare the implant errors of the two groups and to test their oral function after oral implantation. In addition, we investigated the patients’ pain using the visual analogue scale (VAS) and assessed their aesthetic appearance. Finally, the incidence of complications in the patients was recorded.

Results Compared to the control group, the implant error was lower in the observation group (p < 0.05). After implantation, there was no difference in verbal expression and occlusal ability between the two groups (p > 0.05), but VAS was lower in the observation group than in the control group at one week and one month after surgery (p < 0.05). There was no difference in the complication rate between the two groups (p > 0.05), but the observation group had better aesthetic appearance.

Conclusion DIR effectively enhances the accuracy of oral implantation and ameliorates the aesthetic outcome for patients.

Keywords: robotics; treatment outcome; tooth loss; plantation accuracy; treatment outcome; oral implantation