The present meta-analysis was performed in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. The protocol was registered priori in the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO) (www.crd.york.ac.uk/PROSPERO/) (registration number: CRD42020159124)
PICOS question
According to the recommendations of the Centre for Evidence-Based Medicine (University of Oxford, Oxford, UK), the PICOS (participants, interventions, comparisons, outcomes, and study designs) question was as follows: How is the effect on MBL around implants after ILP in the unsplinted mandibular implant-retained overdentures when compared to DLP?
Participants: edentulous patients restored with unsplinted mandibular implant-retained overdentures.
Intervention: ILP for unsplinted mandibular implant-retained overdentures.
Comparisons: DLP for unsplinted mandibular implant-retained overdentures.
Outcomes: MBL with a minimum follow-up of one year.
Study designs: randomized controlled trials (RCTs), controlled clinical trials (CCTs), and cohort studies.
Inclusion criteria
Based on the PICOS question, a study must fulfill the following inclusion criteria:
- Clinical studies on human subjects only
- Studies with adults over 20 years of age who had mandibular edentulism restored by unsplinted implant-retained overdentures
- Studies with a minimum follow-up of one year
- Studies comparing the quantitative outcomes of MBL around implants in unsplinted mandibular implant-retained overdentures restored with ILP and DLP
- Studies with details of measuring techniques
- RCTs, CCTs, prospective and retrospective cohort studies
- Studies reported in English language only
Exclusion criteria
In addition, if a study met any of the following exclusion criteria, it was excluded from the study:
- Case reports, review papers.
- Overdentures retained by a single implant only
- Diameter of implants narrower than 3 mm (mini-implant)
- Duplicate studies based on the same patient cohorts
- Studies with sample size less than ten
Information sources and literature search
The literature search was conducted independently by two independent assessors (W.L. and H.C.). Any disagreement was be resolved by discussion of the two assessors. Three online electronic databases, including PubMed, EMBASE, and CENTRAL (Cochrane Library), were searched for relevant scientific reports published in the English language on April 28, 2020. No time filter was applied. The online search was conducted with the search strategy combining both the MeSH and free text words with high sensitivity and adaptation for the databases (Table 1). For the “grey” literature (e.g. unpublished and ongoing studies, conference abstracts, dissertation and thesis), the ClinicalTrials.gov, System for Information on Grey Literature in Europe (OpenGrey), National Technical Information Service (NTIS), and ProQuest Dissertation Abstracts, and Thesis databases were also searched. Furthermore, hand search was performed to identify the eligible reports based on the reference lists of related trials and reviews as a complement.
Study selection
After pooling the full search results from all database, literatures with repetitive contents were excluded. Two independent assessors (W.L. and H.C.) independently screened the titles and abstracts of studies, and irrelevant reports were discarded. Then the full-text evaluation of articles was carried out by two independent assessors (W.L. and H.C.) to select reports that met all inclusion criteria as well as to exclude reports according to any of the exclusion criteria. Any disagreement about whether a study should be included was resolved by discussion or arbitrated by a third assessor (L.S.). In addition, the kappa statistic was used to measure agreement between the independent assessors.
Data collection and data items
The data were extracted from included reports and cross-checked by two independent assessors (W.L. and H.C.) independently. If there was a discrepancy on the data extraction during this process, the third assessor (L.S.) was consulted and an agreement was finally reached through a consensus discussion. A data collection form was developed a priori to record the extracted information. The following data were included: study, study design, total number of patients, age, edentulous region, number of implants (per patient), implant system, implant diameter, implant length, torque of implants, attachment type, comparison, number of patients in ILP/DLP, loading time of ILP/DLP, radiographic method, marginal bone loss, dropout (patient).
During the data extraction, it was found that one of the studies reported the mean and the standard deviation of vertical bone loss at four different sites (i.e. distal, labial, mesial, and lingual), while the other studies measured MBL at distal and mesial sites around the inserted implants. Thus, only the average values of MBL at distal and mesial sites in these studies were included in the following meta-analysis.
Risk of bias in individual trials
The risk of bias in the included RCTs were evaluated by the Cochrane Collaboration’s tool (RevMan version 5.3) [38]. According to the bias indices, three different levels including low, moderate, and high were used to classify the risk of bias within RCTs [39]. The Newcastle-Ottawa scale (NOS), as an ordinal star-rating scale, was employed for the assessment of methodological quality of non-RCTs. In NOS, a higher score represented a higher report quality of cohort study [40]. The assessments were independently carried out by two independent assessors (W.L. and J.Z.). Any disagreements were discussed and resolved until consensus was reached.
Summary measures and synthesis of results
Statistical analyses were performed via the RevMan (RevMan v5.3, Cochrane Collaboration) and Stata (Stata MP v14, StataCorp LP) softwares. To compare MBL of ILP group with DLP group, the weighted mean differences (WMDs) with 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) for these continuous outcomes was calculated. The results were provided with a fixed-effect or random-effects model [41]. Statistical heterogeneity was measured by the Chi2 statistic and I2 statistic [39].
Risk of bias across studies
When there are at least 10 studies included in the present meta-analysis, tests for funnel plot asymmetry was drawn. Otherwise, Egger’s test was employed to assess the publication bias [39, 42].
Additional analyses
The subgroup analysis was carried out among different attachment types of unsplinted mandibular implant-retained overdentures including Locator attachments, ball anchors and magnetic attachments, in order to reveal whether the overall estimate effect would be influenced by different attachment types. Sensitivity analyses were performed by removing individual trials from the meta-analysis, to see whether the overall effect would be affected and thus to reveal the robustness of the results.