Pathological mandibular fracture: A severe complication of periimplantitis

Nowadays, dental implant treatment is a very common option for patients even in medical compromised conditons. Some complications related to them have been described. Periimplantitis (PI) is one of the biggest concerns complications of these kind of treatments, probably has a multifactorial aethiology. Usually the consequences of PI are the loss of the implants and prostheses, expenses of money and time for dentists and patients. Very often PI implies the necesity of repeating the treatment . Pathological mandibular fracture due to PI is a severe but infrequent complication after dental implant treatment, especially after PI. In this study we present three cases of mandibular pathologic fractures among patients with different medical and dental records but similar management: two of them had been treated years ago of oral squamous cell carcinoma with surgery and radiotherapy, the other patient received oral bisphosphonates for osteoporosis some years after implantation. We analized the causes, consequences and posible prevention of these fractures as well as the special features of this kind of mandibular fractures and the different existing treatments. Key words:Periimplantitis, pathological mandibular fracture, mandibular atrophy, bicortical implants.