Effect of Implant Maintenance on Incidence of Peri-implantitis and Early Implant Failure: Retrospective Cohort Study

Maintaining dental implants and managing peri-implant tissues has become integral to dental practice. Owing to the larger number of implants placed, the number of peri-implant lesions is increasing. Periodontal implant maintenance therapy (PIMT) provides a conservative long-term treatment modality to monitor and maintain implants. This study aims to investigate periodontal maintenance effects on peri-implant tissue health to add to existing evidence. A retrospective analysis included implant patients with 1-7 years of follow-up, assessing peri-implantitis and early implant failure as outcome variables. The frequency of PIMT, implant characteristics, and demographics served as predictors, and associations between peri-implantitis, implant failure, and PIMT frequency were analyzed using Fisher exact tests with the significance level set at .05. Data were collected on 501 implants from 185 patients. Twenty-nine (6%) demonstrated peri-implantitis, whereas 22 (5%) experienced early implant failure. A significant association between PIMT and peri-implantitis was observed (p-value = .0169) with the rate of peri-implantitis at 9% (n = 20) for patients without PIMT and only 4% (n = 10) for those with PIMT. Whereas PIMT was not significantly associated with early implant failure (p-value = .4372), peri-implantitis was: 25% of implants with peri-implantitis experienced early failure compared with 4% without (p-value = .0062). Considering the limitations of the present study, the absence of PIMT was found to be associated with peri-implantitis, which was itself associated with early implant failure. Implant maintenance at 6-month intervals is important in maintaining peri-implant health.