Dental implants have become increasingly common for the management of tooth loss. Despite the reports of high success rate of endo-osseous implants, failure may happen and the implants should be removed. Peri-impalantitis is one of the most common factors of implant failures after osseointegration. The objective of the present study was to compare the subgingival peri-implant microflora with the natural dentition and also to compare the microbial colony count between the two groups.
Methods:
In this prospective longitudinal observational study, microbial sampling was performed from the deepest area of the gingival sulcus of 18 patients (18 implants and 18 adjacent natural teeth), using endodontic paperpoint, 28 days and 6 months following prosthetic loading. The samples have been evaluated with microbial cultural techniques. In addition to that, microbial colony count has been performed, using colony count device.
Results:
The most common bacterial species in both groups, 28 days after prosthetic loading were Entrococcus faecalis (implant: 47.1%, tooth: 52.9%) and Lactobacillus acidophilus (implant: 52.9%, tooth: 41.2%), and 6 months after prosthodontic loading were Entrococcus faecalis (implant: 52.9%, tooth: 47.1%) and Lactobacillus acidophilus (implant: 41.2%, tooth: 23.5%). There were no statistically significant differences between groups for any of the species. Furthermore, teeth and implants presented similar microbial colony count at first follow-up (P=0.791), second follow-up (P=0.096) and also between different time points of implant sites (P=0.197) and teeth site (P=0.593).
Conclusions:
The subgingival peri-implant and periodontal microflora were similar regarding prevalence of bacterial species and colony counts.