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Patients Receiving Implants Should Be Made Aware of the Required Long-Term Additional Efforts Beyond Regular Maintenance
TAKE-HOME MESSAGE
- This study evaluated the costs and efforts of maintenance programs following implant therapy with a fixed restoration over a 10-year observation period. Based on the data from 64 patients with 97 implants, the following key findings were noted: (1) it took one to two appointments and one to three appointments to resolve technical and biological complications, respectively; (2) technical complications occurred in 39.5% of the patients, and screw loosening was the most common technical complication; (3) an abutment fracture was the most time-consuming complication, followed by a screw fracture; (4) at the patient level, the prevalence rates of peri-implant mucositis and peri-implantitis were 30.2% and 9.3%, respectively; and (5) the average annual maintenance cost amounted to 9.0% of the initial implant treatment cost.
- Before beginning implant treatment, the long-term costs/time commitment associated with the annual maintenance program and treatment of technical/biological complications should be considered.
abstract
This abstract is available on the publisher's site.
Access this abstract nowOBJECTIVES
To assess the costs and efforts of maintenance therapy following implant treatment with fixed restoration over an observation period of 10 years.
MATERIAL AND METHODS
This randomized controlled clinical trial included 64 patients who were randomly assigned to receive one of two implant systems (AST or STM) and fixed restoration. Patients were included in a regular maintenance program and were examined at loading, 1, 3, 5, 8, and 10 years. Outcome measures included technical and biological complications, time, efforts, and costs to resolve them.
RESULTS
A total of 97 implants were placed in 64 patients (AST: 54, STM: 43). Patient recall rates at 5 and 10 years were 89% and 67%. In general, technical complications were resolved within one to two appointments (mean = 1.5), and biological complications required a mean of 1.3 appointments. The overall regular maintenance time for the period of 10 years amounted to 77 min per year. Technical complications occurred in 39.5% of the patients, with screw-loosening being the most common one (43.4% of all complications). The most time-consuming technical complication was abutment fracture (94 min ± 68), followed by screw fracture (84 min ± 38). The prevalence of peri-implant mucositis on the patient level was 30.2%, and it was 9.3% for peri-implantitis. The average annual maintenance costs amounted to 9% of the initial cost of the implant treatment over the period of 10 years.
CONCLUSIONS
Additional regular maintenance costs and costs due to the treatment of potential complications have to be taken into consideration when placing dental implants. The majority of technical complications could be resolved within one appointment, whereas the time needed to treat biological complications varied between one and three appointments for peri-implantitis.
Additional Info
Disclosure statements are available on the authors' profiles:
Maintenance Costs, Time, and Efforts Following Implant Therapy With Fixed Restorations Over an Observation Period of 10 Years: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial
Clin Implant Dent Relat Res 2024 Oct 13;[EPub Ahead of Print], M Pirc, N Gadzo, M Balmer, N Naenni, RE Jung, DS ThomaFrom MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.