The denture retention and stability, chewing and comfort values of conventional dentures and hollow dentures were slightly better for conventional dentures.

Background: Various biomaterials have been used for manufacturing dental implants with titanium being widely used. However, titanium has exhibited a few drawbacks such as metal ion release, corrosion of metals and poor compatibility with modern imaging techniques. To overcome these, alternative substitutes to titanium such as hydroxyapatite, zirconia, polyetheretherketone (PEEK) have been recently introduced.Material and methods: Fifty edentulous sites were rehabilitated with PEEK implants out of which twenty-five were immediately loaded (day one post-op) while, the remaining 25 were loaded 30 days post-op after placement (early loading). Implants were evaluated clinically and radiographically at 1 week, 1, 3, 6 and 12 months after placement for success parameters like marginal bone loss, mobility, pain, infection, bleeding and implant survival rate.Results: At the end of one-year observation period after implant placement, nine out of 25 immediately loaded PEEK implants failed scoring a failure rate of 36%. Six out of the other 25 early loaded implants failed, scoring a failure rate of 24%. After 12 months thirteen out of 25 immediately loaded implants and six out of other 25 early loading implants showed score 1 of bleeding on probing respectively. Conclusions:Within the limitations of the present study, the immediately loaded PEEK implants exhibited higher failure rate compared to implants loaded with early loading protocol.