Are healing abutments being reused in periodontics residency programs in the United States? A survey-based study

Recent studies indicate that reusing healing abutments (HAs) may pose a risk of biomaterial cross contamination among patients. The intent is to investigate whether postgraduate periodontics residency programs in the United States are reusing dental implant HAs and determine if there is a standardization in the decontamination and sterilization protocol of used HAs.

An electronic survey consisting of-seven multiple choice and/or short answer questions pertaining to the re-use of HAs among postdoctoral periodontics programs was sent to program directors of 57 accredited dental schools in the United States via an online survey system (Qualtrics). Three follow-up remainder emails were sent to programs that did not respond after over a 6-month period. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics.

Of the 57 postdoctoral periodontics program directors contacted, only 14 responded with three programs (3/14, 21%) reported reusing HAs. Approximately, 46% stated their residents place dental implants in two stages, while ∼54% stated they used a one-stage protocol indicating varied time exposure of HA to the oral cavity. Even in a two-stage protocol, the extended time HA remained in situ varied from 4 weeks to 6 months. Each program reusing HAs employed a distinct decontamination approach highlighting a notable lack of standardization in practices.

The findings from our study suggest that a minority of residency programs in the United States are reusing HAs. However, the limited number of responses leaves uncertainty regarding whether our findings underestimate the prevalence of this practice and accurately reflect the reality. Among those re-using HAs, there seems to be a lack of standardization in their decontamination, potentially leading to cross-contamination of residual biomaterial among patients.