ABSTRACT
When planning an implant-supported restoration, the dentist is faced with surgical and prosthetic technical issues as well as the patient's expectations. Many patients wish an immediate solution to an edentulous condition. This may be especially true in the esthetic zone, and that zone is determined by the patient. The dentist may consider when it is feasible to load the supporting implants with definitive or provisional prosthetics. In this work, many parameters were theoretically assessed for inclusion: bone density, cortical thickness, insertion torque, parafunction, bite load capacity, number of implants under load, implant/crown ratio, implant diameter, and length. After assessment, the most influential parameters were selected. An iteration, using patient age, implant diameter, bite load capacity, and cortical thickness, is now presented to aid the implant dentist in determining the feasibility for immediate functional loading of a just-placed dental implant in a healed site. Extensive testing is required to develop this concept. According to this iteration, most immediate functional loaded implants would fail. A future refined and definitive formula may enable the clinician to safely and immediately functionally load an implant with a definitive prosthesis. For access to the applet, please go to https://implantloading.shinyapps.io/shiny_app/.