Prevalence of Dental Implants and Evaluation of Peri-implant Bone Levels in Patients Presenting to a Dental School: A Radiographic Cross-Sectional 2-Year Study

PURPOSE: To evaluate the number of patients with dental implants who present to a dental school clinic for screening and to report the prevalence of peri-implant bone level change detected on digital panoramic radiographs of those subjects. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Patient screening files for 9,422 patients over a 2-year period were examined to see how many patients presented with dental implants. Those patients with at least one implant were further evaluated by measuring the bone level on the mesial and distal sides of the implant using the screening radiograph. RESULTS: A total of 187 patients (2%) had at least one implant. In regard to implants, 423 were examined and 146 (33%) had no detectable bone loss defined as bone level below the top of the implant. When thresholds of bone loss were evaluated, 109 implants (25%) had ≥ 2 mm of bone loss on either the mesial or distal sides or both. The median bone loss was 1.74 mm for the 277 implants with detectable bone loss and 2.97 mm for the 109 implants that had ≥ 2 mm bone loss. Interestingly, patients who were ≥ 70 years of age had significantly (P = .03) more bone loss in the mandible compared with the maxilla, while patients who were 60 to 69 years of age had significantly greater loss in the maxilla. CONCLUSION: These data reveal that for patients presenting to the dental school for a screening over a 2-year period, 1.98% had one or more dental implants. Furthermore, those patients with implants had a minimum amount of bone loss as measured from the top of the implant.