Comparative Evaluation of Gnathological Function With Bruxoff® in Edentulous Patients With Immediate Load Full-arch Restorations (Columbus Bridge ProtocolTM) vs Toothed Patients: a Pilot Study

Dental implants are now widely used in dentistry for the rehabilitation of partially or totally edentulous arches. These devices have shown excellent clinical success and are considered a reliable long-term treatment(1). In particular, the rehabilitation of the complete arch with immediate loading supported by maxillary implants has now become a safe and reliable procedure capable of rehabilitating the patient with residual or totally edentulous teeth. A fixed prosthesis supported by implants performed according to an immediate loading protocol represents a valid therapeutic option for the rehabilitation of totally edentulous patients, both from the point of view of patient satisfaction and masticatory performance(2,3,4).

Among the various protocols available in the literature, the one called Columbus Bridge Protocol™, developed by the prosthetic school of the University of Genoa, consists in the rehabilitation of one or both jaws with the insertion of a variable number of 4 to 6 dental implants followed by immediate loading(5). This rehabilitation has been documented to be a reliable implant-prosthetic solution in terms of survival and implant success in the medium and long term(2,6). However, considering the current scientific evidence, there is a lack of information relating to possible alterations in muscle activity following this implant-prosthetic rehabilitation.

For the evaluation of EMG activity of the stomatognathic system, the School of Turin has, for a decade now, tested and validated the use of Bruxoff® portable device for the evaluation of nocturnal bruxism, demonstrating a sensitivity and specificity of 91.6 % and 84.6% respectively (7,8).

Bruxoff® is a portable holter that uses 3 recording channels: 2 for recording the surface electromyographic signals (sEMG) of the two masseter muscles with concentric electrodes positioned on the two muscles (CoDe®: Concentric Detection, Spes Medica, Battipaglia, Italy), and one for heart rate detection (ECG) with a strap incorporating three surface electrodes positioned on the left side of the chest (7,13).

Patients who have been rehabilitated with a full-arch for at least 6 months at the Dental School of Turin and subjects waiting for implant-prosthetic rehabilitation of intercalated edentulism (i.e. single-tooth gap) will be involved.