Effect of conventionally fabricated and three-dimensional printed provisional restorations on hard and soft peri-implant tissues in the mandibular posterior region: A randomized controlled clinical trial.

Background: The purpose of this study was to conduct a randomized controlled clinical trial to compare and evaluate the effect of provisional restorations fabricated by two techniques, namely, conventional and three-dimensional (3D) printing processes on the peri-implant hard and soft tissues over early nonfunctional loaded implants in the mandibular posterior region. Materials and Methods: A randomized controlled clinical trial was conducted across 24 subjects broadly divided into two groups with 12 dental implants each, i.e., GpIC with conventionally fabricated provisional restoration and GpIID with 3D printed fabricated provisional restoration. The prosthetic phase was carried out at 2 weeks, and subjects were evaluated at baseline (at the time of prosthesis placement), 2 months, and 4 months for peri-implant marginal bone level, mucosal suppuration, sulcular probing depth, and modified sulcular bleeding index. Patient satisfaction was assessed using 5-item questionnaires at 4 months. The intragroup comparison for all the data was done using Wilcoxon signed-rank test. The intergroup comparison for all the data was done using Mann-Whitney Results: Nonsignificant difference was observed in all the hard and soft tissue parameters between the groups at baseline, 2 months, and 4 months ( Conclusion: The effect of conventionally fabricated and 3D printed provisional restorations on peri-implant hard and soft tissues was comparable to each other on an early nonfunctionally loaded implant in the mandibular posterior region.