Screw Retained vs Cement Retained Implant Crowns

When it comes to the restoration of implants, we typically have two treatment options: Screw-retained or Cement-retained. Although both treatment options can be used predictably, they each have their own advantages and disadvantages:

Screw-retained

Advantages:

• Known retention
• Low profile retention
• Easy to remove / re-tighten if it were to become loose
• Ease of retrievability in full arch cases
• No risk of leaving residual cement
• Ensures passivity of framework

Disadvantages:

• Dependent on implant orientation / angulation
• May be unesthetic

Cement-retained

Advantages:

• Independent on implant orientation / angulation
• Enhanced esthetics

Disadvantages:

• • Unknown retention
  • Can be difficult to remove

Literature reports suggest many clinicians transitioned to restore an increasing number of implants as screw-retained. Why this transition? Mainly because there is a lot of good research showing the problems like peri- implantitis associated with leaving residual cement in a cement retained implant crown which may lead to implant failure