Supportive therapy and the longevity of dental implants: a systematic review of the literature

To review systematically whether supportive implant treatment during a follow-up of at least 10 years after functional loading is effective in prevention of biological complications and fixture loss.

A MEDLINE search was conducted for the period of 1965 to April 2006 of longitudinal clinical studies with follow-up periods after implant function of at least 10 years. Sixty-two studies were initially screened for inclusion and read in full text. Nine studies remained for the final assessment and 53 articles were thus excluded for the following reasons: (1) no information on implant maintenance was presented, (2) the number of patients/implants assessed at 10-year follow-up/final evaluation was not presented (3) fixture loss and marginal bone loss during function were not assessed at 10-year evaluation and (4) residual inflammation and/or probing pocket depth (PPD) not assessed at 10-year examination.

Fifty-six percent of 62 initially screened studies did not assess clinical inflammation and PPD around implants at long-term evaluation of implants. This was the most common reason for exclusion of studies. In 28% of excluded studies, there was no information on implant maintenance during follow-up. A total of 749 fixtures were included and followed for more than 10 years of functional load. Five of the included studies gave no detailed information of the assessments or the treatment at follow-up visits during the 10 years. Only in two of the included cohorts were patients enrolled in an individualized supportive program on a 3-6-month recall interval.

There are, to date, few available studies evaluating the long-term effect of supportive programs for implant patients. Based on the nine studies included, no evidence is available to suggest the frequency of recall intervals or to propose specific hygiene treatments. There is an urgent need for such studies to be initiated.