Treatment Outcomes of Implant-Supported Maxillary Obturator Prostheses in Patients with Maxillary Defects: A Systematic Review

Purpose To systematically review the current evidence on clinical and patient-reported outcomes of implant-supported palatal obturator prostheses. Materials and methods An electronic search of the PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane databases was carried out in June 2019. The titles and abstracts of all articles were screened by two independent reviewers. The references of the subsequently selected studies were further screened for potential articles. Assessment of the selected full texts was performed independently according to established inclusion and exclusion criteria. The quality of the selected studies was determined using the Newcastle-Ottawa scale. Interrater agreement on study selection was calculated using Cohen kappa statistic. Results The search yielded a total of 2,797 records. Ten studies were selected for data extraction, with a Cohen kappa value of 0.856. Five studies were prospective, and five were retrospective. The survival rates for conventional implants ranged from 21.42% to 100%, whereas for zygomatic implants, the survival rates varied from 30% to 100%. Four studies reported prosthodontic complications, with screw loosening being the most common. Patient quality of life (QoL) was analyzed in six studies. Conclusion In spite of the limitations of the present review, it can be concluded that the clinical outcomes are acceptable in terms of survival rates, implant and prosthodontic complications, and QoL associated with implant-supported maxillary obturator prostheses. QoL of implant-supported prostheses in these patients are acceptable. The general study design was not homogenous between studies.