Dental implants in patients seropositive for HIV: A 12-year follow-up study

Patients seropositive HIV and AIDS represent a group of patients who experience longer longevity at the expense of effective therapies for infection control and related opportunistic diseases. However, the prolonged use of these drugs is often associated with adverse events, which theoretically may influence dental management and the long-term stability of dental implants. The objective of this study was to prospectively evaluate a group of HIV-positive people from a previous study who had received dental implants for 12 years after oral rehabilitation and functional loading.

Nine patients with a total of 18 implants participated in this study. Viral load was undetectable in 8 patients, with 1 who had 48 copies/milliliter. The cluster of differentiation 4 T lymphocyte count ranged from 227 through 1,000 cells/cubic millimeter, mean (standard deviation [SD]) 564 (271.13) cells/mm³. Five of the 9 (55.5%) patients had visible plaque, and 5 (55.5%) had bleeding on probing with no implant mobility. Radiographs obtained at 6 months, 12 months, and 12 years of functional loading showed mean (SD) marginal bone losses of 0.32 (0.23) mm, 0.37 (0.23) mm, and 2.43 (1.48), respectively.

These results suggest that dental implant treatment in HIV-positive patients achieved long-term survival, with a success rate comparable with that observed in healthy patients, indicating that implant rehabilitation is not a contraindication for HIV-positive patients.