Periodontitis, Diabetes, and Smoking as Risk Factors in Implant Failure

Objectives: The current study set out to further examine smoking, diabetes, and a history of periodontitis as potential risk factors for future implant failure utilizing the dental records of an integrated health care system.
Methods: HealthPartners’ network identified 1765 implants placed in patients who had not been requested to be excluded from research and were at least 18 years of age at the time of implant placement between January 1, 2004 and December 31, 2014. Searching for removal procedure codes identified 27failures and a success rate of 98.5% was obtained.
Results: A significant difference in failures was observed after 2 years of follow up favoring the survival of implants placed in younger individuals. Chart audits revealed uncaptured failures and mistakes in charting bringing into question the integrity of the cohort.
Conclusions: Cofounding variables, limitations in definingvariables, the small number of failures, missing codes, and mistakes in charting limit this study from making any conclusions. These limitations are evidence of the need for better inter-network communication and more effective, integrated charting systems. A national registry for implants would be an effective solution to many of the limitations evident in this study and problems facing clinical providers.