Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) Dental Implants: A Case for Immediate Loading

Abstract

In the last three decades, polyetheretherketone (PEEK) has been increasingly employed as a biomaterial for orthopedic and spinal implants. PEEK dental implants have shown equal promise and are currently being used and investigated in many parts of the world. While their osseointegration capacity has been established beyond doubt, it is not clear whether these implants are suitable for specific situations with low functional and high esthetic demands or as completely viable alternatives to titanium in all situations. We present a brief introduction to the PEEK implants, a representative system and kit and the advantages and disadvantages as compared to titanium implants.It is our observation that PEEK implants function well in anterior as well as posterior regions and when loaded immediately (one week after placement). Their use in the esthetic zone can be of significant advantage to the surgeon as well as patient. However, diminished radiopacity and limitation of available sizes may be causes for concern.

Polyetheretherketone (PEEK) as a medical and dental material. A literature review

“…Five were clinical reports [2,6,8,18,24] and 35 were papers on PEEK surface treatments [13][14][15][16][17] how the bioactivity of PEEK can be improved [1,21]; the characteristics of CFR-PEEK [3,7,[19][20]; the biocompatibility of PEEK [5]; PEEK applications [4,8,[10][11]30]; PEEK biofilm formation [22,[31][32][33][34], PEEK as an abutment material and as an implant material [12,23,[25][26][27][28][29]35,40] and the use of CAD-CAM with PEEK [36][37][38][39]. …”

“…The most widely used materials used are: titanium, gold, base metals, zirconium or aluminum oxide ceramics. PEEK is currently used as a provisional abutment, because this material has been demonstrated to reduce stress shielding around the implant [23][24][25][27][28]. However, PEEK is not used as a definitive abutment material because its fracture resistance is lower than that of titanium [25,[29][30].…”

“…These include hypersensitivity in the user, excessive stress on the implant-bone due to the gradient of difference in the elastic moduli, as well as certain esthetic problems. PEEK, which was first commercialized in April 1998 as a biomaterial for implants [23][24][25], has been proposed an alternative to titanium.…”

Polyether Ether Ketone (Peek) Fibers

“…Genellikle omurilik tedavisinde kullanılan implantlarda [78], güçlendirme uygulamalarında [79], ameliyatlarda kullanılan bezlerde/ipliklerde [80], kafa kemiklerinin dikişe benzer ek yerleri ve kemik bağ dokularında kullanılan bağlarda [81], sonda borularında [82] ve pinömatik cihazlarda kullanılan PEEK lifleri, bunlara ek olarak diş implantlarında da yaygın bir kullanıma sahiptir [43,83]. Ortopedik implantlarda karbon lifleri ile güçlendirilmiş PEEK kompozitler de kullanılabilmektedir [62,76].…”

“…PEEK, Osseo-integrasyon kapasitesi (canlı kemik ile yüklenmiş implant arasındaki yapısal ve işlevsel bağlantı [84]) sayesinde diş implantlarında kullanım için oldukça elverişli bir materyaldir [83]. Yerleştirilmesi kolay olan PEEK implantları ani yüklemeler altında oldukça iyi bir performans sergilemektedir.…”