When planning an implant supported restoration the dentist is faced with the surgical and prosthetic technical issues as well as the patient’s expectations. Many patients wish an immediate solution to an edentulous condition. This is especially may be true in the esthetic zone. The extent of the zone is determined by the patient. The dentist may consider when it is feasible to load the supporting implants with definitive or provisional prosthetics. For the work herein, consideration of many parameters were theoretically assessed for inclusion: bone density, cortical thickness, seating torque, parafunction, bite load capacity, number of implants under load, implant/crown ratio, implant diameter and length. After assessment, the most influential parameters were selected. An iteration, using patient age, implant diameter, bite load capacity and cortical thickness, is now presented to aid the implant dentist in determining the feasibility for immediate functional loading of a just placed dental implant in a healed site. Extensive testing is required to develop this concept. According to this iteration, most immediate functional loaded implants would fail. A future refined and definitive formula may enable the clinician to safely immediately functional load an implant with a definitive prosthesis.
