Implants – Also a success story from a patient perspective?

PD Dr. Kristina Bertl, PhD MSc MBA

Dental implants generally have a very high survival rate and can be a successful replacement for lost teeth. But what do our patients actually think about dental implants? Would our patients also consider dental implants a success story?

Implants – Also a success story from a patient perspective?

A research group from Thailand (Pradyachaipimol et al. 2023) examined this very question and created a survey which asked a total of 13 questions on the following aspects:

This survey was completed by just under 200 patients, who had had an implant for a minimum of one year. Almost 60% of participants were women and just over half of them were below the age of 60. Overall, 80% had posterior implants and around half had more than one implant; 80% had single-tooth implant treatments.

Apart from cleansing ability and the treatment costs, all measured parameters were over 80% of the maximum point total, which means that, on a scale of 1–10 (where 10 is the best result) the patients gave an average rating of more than 8. The treatment costs were scored 7.1 on average, and the score for cleansing ability was 7.4. Overall satisfaction of participants with their implant treatment stood at 8.5. The result was negatively affected when, for example, patients had already lost an implant and/or experience mechanical complications. By contrast, the result was positively affected when the participants had a higher income and the implant was in the posterior region.

In a nutshell, you could say that a very high percentage of patients had a positive experience of implant treatment and had a high level of overall satisfaction with the result. While it is not so surprising that the treatment costs are often criticised, it is interesting to read that patients often complain about their own cleansing ability. This once again underlines how important it is that patients are given good instruction in home oral hygiene following implant treatment.

References

1. Pradyachaipimol N, Tangsathian T, Supanimitkul K, et al. Patient satisfaction following dental implant treatment: A survey. Clin Implant Dent Relat Res. 2023; 25(3):613‐623. doi:10.1111/cid.13196