In this lecture we will go through what we are looking for
in a radiograph of an implant,
Prevention of complications or detection at an early stage
is very much depending on our ability
to correctly interpret radiographs on implants correctly.
What are we looking for in a radiograph of an implant?
In the biological part, we are looking for bone loss,
disintegration and apical peri-implantitis.
While on the technical side we are looking for
if the abutment screw is in place, if it's loose;
gaps, fractures in screws and frameworks; in implants, cracks;
and sometimes even cement excess.
So let's go through a couple of radiographs
and see what we can find.
In this one, we have three implants.
The first implant is perfectly fine.
The second one we can see irregulars and
see around the implant suggesting we have
a loose, disintegrated implant.
On the last implant is a typical saucer defect
that looks like a typical peri-implantitis.
In this radiograph, we can see
a typical apical peri-implantitis.
Sometimes when taking radiographs with impression copings
it is essential to see if the impression copings
are in place.
In this image you can see that we have used
the wrong size of the impression copings
revealing a gap in the radiograph.
This radiograph, we can see two things.
One is that the abutment screw on the left is fractured.
On the right image, we can see it is
actually a wrong size of the abutment.
In this picture we can see if we magnify it
that on the first implant on the left side
we have a broken, fractured screw.
In the middle one the abutment screw is in place.
And on the third one we can see
the abutment screw has unscrewed itself.