Methods: Two patients, treated from September 2007 to November 2009, were selected, to receive extraoral titanium implants. The two study patients had initially two different diagnosis: carcinoma basocellulare and squamous cell carcinoma. One of the patients has received implants from an implant system, that has long-term follow-up, the implants, placed in the other patient, were invented and manufactured by a different company with no extraoral experience. In both patients implants were placed in the distal stub of the nasal bone, and in the ridge of the notch in the mesial border of the maxilla, right and left side. The final epithesis was delivered using an Y-shaped bar retention.
Results: After an unloaded osseointegration phase of three month, all implants appeared to be osseointegrated according to the radiologic criteria and clinical examination. Patients demonstrated a high degree of satisfaction after receiving the final restoration. Operators reported both systems to be adequate in the surgical part. Both, the technician and the operator evaluated the prosthetic part of the developed system to be appropriate and the new system to be more difficult to work with.
Conclusions: Extraoral implants have proven to be a good alternate solution where reconstructive surgery cannot be performed. Advanced systems are more easy to work with, but even a newly developed system can give a perfect final functional and aesthetic result.