Out of 189 implants nine were explanted
prematurely. Since all except for one exception
were not yet prosthetically restored because of
the too short implant duration (mean value 3.5
months), prosthetic restoration as possible cause
for explantation is not discussed further in the
present study. It is not new that failures occur
primarily within the healing phase and this is
described in many studies. Albrektsson et al. [4]
even go so far as to start the assessment of the
success of an implant only after the fi rst year in
situ, which would signifi cantly improve the
success statistics in the present study