Maximising implants

Implant therapy has become an increasingly popular treatment option for both dentists and patients alike over the past decade. According to the Association of Dental Implantology around 130,000 individual implants are placed each year in the UK, providing life-enhancing functional and aesthetic benefits to edentulous patients.

Successful implant therapy is defined not only by the immediate achievement of the therapeutic goal, but, importantly, by maintaining a functional, stable, and aesthetically acceptable tooth replacement for the patient. It is, therefore, clear that longevity plays a central role in evaluating implant treatment.

It has proven complicated to ascertain an accurate measure of the average longevity of implant treatment, with some studies deeming ‘success’ as ‘survival’, with even ‘ailing’ or ‘failing’ implants considered successful. However, to give some indication, Hartog and co-workers reported a survival rate of 95.5 per cent after one year of follow-up, and even a study providing 20-year data on implants reported a success/survival rate of 75.8 per cent/89.5 per cent.