Evaluation of Hand Torque Application on Dental Implant Healing Abutments

Loss of dental healing abutments can lead to excess cost, lost time, and additional surgeries. Achieving adequate tightening of these healing abutments can prevent this loss. Therefore, the purpose of this in vitro, pilot study, was to evaluate the ability of a single clinician to hand-tighten dental healing abutments of several types and collar heights. This study evaluated two types and two collar heights of dental healing abutments and the clinicians ability to hand tighten these abutments. A customized jig was utilized to stabilize four implants and the clinician hand tightened different healing abutments to each implant. A digital torque meter was utilized to obtain the reverse torque values for each sample in each group.