Abstract
Implant therapy has become a widespread reality in modern dentistry. Nevertheless,
dental implants can fail due to different causes, among which inflammatory peri-implant
diseases (IPDs) are a major challenge, with prevalences that are much higher than
previously believed.
Specific searches were undertaken for each question raised between October and November
2017, in the PubMed website database (US National Library of Medicine, National Institutes
of Health; Bethesda, Maryland, United States). Only articles written in English and
published from 2007 onward were considered initially. The following keywords were
used in the searches “periimplantitis (PI),” “periimplant mucositis (PM),” “dental
implant failure,” “periimplant microbiota,” “periodontal microbiota,” “implant failure”
(no temporal limit), and “foreign body reaction” (no temporal limit). The selection
process resulted in the selection of 239 articles that were analyzed in detail in
elaborating this review. The reference list was limited to the 47 most relevant articles
due to editorial limits of this Journal.
Intrinsic differences between natural teeth and dental implants are able to give rise
to inflammatory diseases that share only minor and scarcely relevant characters, and
would consequently deserve different and specifically designed instruments and strategies,
for both diagnosis and therapy.
Keywords
gingivitis - pathogenesis - periimplant mucositis - periimplantitis - periodontitis
