Clinical Outcomes in the Non-Surgical Treatment of Peri-Implantitis After Removing the Suprastructure Prior to Treatment - A Retrospective Case Series.

PURPOSE: To retrospectively explore the effect of suprastructure removal prior to non-surgical treatment of peri-implantitis on clinical parameters.

MATERIALS AND

METHODS

The electronic patient health record (EHR) of a practice restricted to periodontology and implantology was searched to identify all subjects who had at least one implant with peri-implantitis and received non-surgical treatment after suprastructure removal. The implant was cleaned with both ultrasonic devices and metal manual instruments, and oral hygiene self-care instructions were given to the patient. The suprastructure was cleaned in the dental laboratory and temporarily replaced with a healing abutment. Clinical parameters at baseline and 3 months post-therapy were retrieved from the EHR. These included peri-implant pocket depth (PPD), bleeding on implant probing (BoIP), suppuration on probing (SUP), and recession (REC). Data at 3 months were compared to data from the baseline assessment. In addition, the photographs were evaluated with the gingival index (GI) and bone loss was estimated from the radiographs.

RESULTS

Eleven patients with 15 implants were included in the study. After 3 months, a statistically significant reduction of mean PPD (from 6.1 mm to 3.3 mm) was observed (p = 0.001). The percentage of BoIP-positive sites was reduced from 94% to 28% (p = 0.001), and the percentage of SUP-positive sites was reduced from 29% to 2% (p = 0.011). REC did not show a statistically significant change (p = 0.398). The GI decreased from 0.93 to 0.40 (p = 0.005).

CONCLUSION

Non-surgical treatment of peri-implantitis, including removal and laboratory cleaning of implant suprastructures combined with temporary replacement by a healing abutment, showed improvement of clinical peri-implant health parameters.