To test whether early implant placement with alveolar ridge preservation (ARP) results in different esthetic, clinical and patient-reported outcome measures (PROMs) compared to early implant placement without ARP.
Seventy-five patient requiring single tooth extraction in the anterior maxilla were recruited. Following tooth extraction, the patients were randomly allocated to three groups: 1) ARP using demineralized bovine bone mineral containing 10% collagen (DBBM-C) covered by a collagen matrix (CM) (n = 25), 2) ARP using DBBM-C covered with a palatal graft (PG) (n = 25), 3) spontaneous healing (control) (n = 25). Eight weeks after tooth extraction a CBCT was taken and early implant placement was performed in all patients. Esthetic, clinical and PROMs were evaluated one-year post-loading.
A total of 70 patients were available for re-examination at one-year post-loading. The median mid-facial mucosal margin change amounted to -0.02 mm (IQR -0.27 to 0.46) in group CM, -0.13 mm (IQR -0.44 to 0.25) in group PG and -0.14 mm (IQR -0.29 to 0.07) in control group, with no significant differences between the groups. Mean PES scores amounted to 7.0 ± 1.4 in group CM, 7.1 ± 1.5 in group PG and 7.3 ± 1 .7 in control group without significant differences between the groups. Plaque, bleeding on probing, and probing depth did not differ between treatment groups. PROMs in general revealed no significant differences between the groups.
Early implant placement with ARP using either a collagen matrix or a palatal graft rendered similar esthetic, clinical, and PROMs compared to early implant placement without ARP. When a failing tooth can be replaced with an implant within 2 months after tooth extraction, the added value of ARP might be clinically negligible.

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