 Dental implants are a widely used treatment option for the replacement of lost teeth due to trauma or oral diseases. The original protocol for placement of dental implants in edentulous spaces in the maxilla or the mandible was introduced more than thirty years ago and called for a two-stage approach, i.e., surgical placement of submerged dental implants and subsequent uncovering with abutment connection, prosthesis fabrication and functional loading approximately 6 months after. Today, the time between surgery and loading in a two-stage protocol has been commonly abbreviated to 3-4 months, while immediate implant provisionalization has emerged as a reliable and predictable option in cases of adequate osseous support, having similar survival and success rates to the two-step procedure. Comparison of histological healing has demonstrated no significant differences in bone to implant contact between implants surgically placed according to a two-stage protocol and those immediately provisionalized. However, substantial variability was noted among the clinical protocols used in the studies carried out so far, and additional well-designed randomized controlled trials RCTs are needed to fully appreciate the clinical outcomes of immediate and early loading protocols. 