Crestal Bone Loss and Oral Implants

Background: A consensus meeting was arranged to critically analyze whether the high figures of peri-implantitis at machined implants that recently have been reported in the literature are valid also for modern implants. Purpose: The aims of this paper were to present the outcomes from the consensus meeting and to evaluate recent long-term clinical studies on modern implants with regard to frequency of peri-implant infection. Materials and Methods: Ten different studies of three modern implant brands of moderately rough surfaces with 10-year or longer follow-up times were found through a PubMed and manual search. Results: It was concluded that bleeding on probing or probing depths are weak indicators of crestal bone loss (CBL); that CBL occurs for many other reasons than infection; that implant-, clinician-, and patient-related factors contribute to CBL; and that modern oral implants outperform older devices. Based on a literature search, the frequency of implants with reported peri-implant infection and significant bone loss leading to implant removal or other surgical intervention was on average 2.7% during 7 to 16 years of function. Conclusion: The summed frequency of peri-implantitis and implant failure is commonly less than 5% over 10 years of follow-up for modern implants when using established protocols.