Smoking has a negative impact on the long-term success of dental implant treatment, according to researchers at the Academy for Oral Implantology in Vienna in a study of more than 20,000 implants placed there from 2004 to 2016 and presented at the European Federation of Periodontology’s EuroPerio9 conference, June 20 to June 23 in Amsterdam.
“Our aim was to be able to estimate the individual implant failure risk related to patient age and smoking habits, as well as a history of periodontitis,” said Bernhard Pommer, DDS, PhD, of the Academy for Oral Implantology.
“We started researching this data in order to create a simple app that would allow for easy calculation of the failure risk in individual patients. At first, we also included several other factors, such as gender, but then narrowed it down to the three main factors impacting implant survival: age, smoking, and periodontal health,” Pommer said.
“In this large retrospective study, we analyzed results for patients over and under 40 years of age, their smoking habits, and their history of gum disease. Overall, there was a very satisfactory 10-year implant survival rate above 90% for all groups. Nevertheless, in young smokers already suffering from periodontitis, the study showed an over 6% increased risk of implant failure compared to young healthy individuals,” Pommer said.
“We concluded that smoking deteriorates long-term implant success in all groups, except in young periodontally healthy patients. On the contrary, in younger patients (less than 40 years of age) with a history of periodontal disease, smoking had a big impact, with a 5.5-fold increased risk of failure, compared to young healthy individuals,” Pommer said.
“This is explained by the fact that when there is an early onset of periodontitis, it is commonly an aggressive variant or associated with harmful bacterial flora. Young people should be made aware that bleeding gums are not normal and that they should consult if there are any signs of gum disease,” Pommer said.
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