Supportive periodontal therapy and periodontal biotype as prognostic factors in implants placed in patients with a history of periodontitis

Objectives: To evaluate bone loss around implants placed in patients with a history of treated chronic periodontitis and who did or did not attend supportive periodontal therapy, after one year in function. Furthermore, the influence of periodontal biotype and level of plaque was also evaluated. Material and Methods: Forty-nine patients participated voluntarily in the study. All subjects had a history of chronic periodontitis, which had been previously treated. After the active treatment, 27 patients attended supportive periodontal therapy (SPT) and the rest did not (No SPT). The O'Leary plaque index and periodontal biotype were recorded for each subject and 246 Astra Tech (R) Osseo-speedTM implants were radiographically analysed (123 placed in SPT patients and 123 in No SPT patients) at the time of loading and one year later, measuring marginal bone loss with the program Dental Studio NX 6.0 (R). The statistical analysis was performed with Windows SPSS, applying Pearson's correlation index and the Kruskal-Wallis and U-Mann Whitney non-parametric tests. Results: Six patients were found to have periimplantitis and sixteen mucositis. The survival rate was 99.59% (100% SPT and 99.18% No SPT). Mean bone loss was 0.39 mm (range [-0.71 - 8.05]). Among SPT patients, 95% of the implants had losses less than or equal to the mean (mean bone loss of 0.16 mm) compared to 53.7% for the No SPT group (mean bone loss of 0.62 mm). A statistically significant relationship was demonstrated between bone loss around the implant and the patient's periodontal biotype and plaque index. Conclusions: The marginal bone loss around implants in patients with treated chronic periodontitis is minimal if they are in a controlled SPT programme and there is individual control of plaque index. Moreover, the presence of a thin periodontal biotype represents a risk factor for additional bone loss.