Dental & Oral Health

The overall five year success of implants reported in dental literature is 95-97%. Since, the volume of dental implantology is on the rise, thus the failed 3-5% implants constitute a large number of cases. Our study objective was to assess the implants that were placed at a teaching hospital in last five years but later got failed to explore the factors associated with the implant failures. A retrospective charts review was done from June 2010-June 2015. Record of all the implants placed in the hospital was retrieved. The implants that got failed were thoroughly investigated. Variables such as patient age, gender and systemic status, length and diameter of implants, bone grafting, type of definitive prosthesis (crown or bridge or over denture), nature of retention (cement versus screw retained), loading strategy (immediate versus delayed loading) etc. were analyzed. Frequency distribution was computed. Chi square test was applied to compare the association between categorical variables. The unit of analysis was implant. Level of significance was kept at <0.05. Out of 215 implants placed, six implants failed to integrate when assessed for prosthetic phase. One more implant failed after six months of loading. The seven failed cases had following common variables: deficient bone volume in maxilla (or placement of bone graft), non-submerged placement protocol, early loading with prosthesis and presence of diabetes. The five year failure rate of implants was 3.25%. Factors affecting outcome of implant success include atrophic maxilla, premature loading and medical comorbid.