Clinical and Microbiological Parameters of Tooth/Implants Affected by Dentifrices

Objectives: Surgical placement of dental implants finds widespread utility to rehabilitate patients after tooth loss. The availability of different types of implants constitutes an important treatment alternate for a variety of clinical situations. This study compared clinical and microbiological parameters between implants and natural teeth.

Methods: Ninety eight subjects (49 males and 49 females; age range 36-88 years; mean age 54 years) with at least one dental implant were enrolled. For each subject, an implant and corresponding contralateral natural tooth were identified for clinical and microbiological assessments. Clinical assessments included bleeding on probing (BOP), gingival index (GI) and dental plaque (PI). Dental plaque was collected from the implant and a contralateral tooth for microbiological analysis. Dilutions of each plaque sample were plated on enriched agar. Triplicate plates of each dilution were incubated under aerobic and anaerobic conditions at 37ºC to assess aerobic and anaerobic organisms respectively. For all samples, microbial counts were log10 transformed for statistical analyses. Statistical analyses of clinical results compared the implant with the natural tooth.

Results: Clinical examinations, revealed no significant differences between implants and natural teeth for BOP and GI (p>0.05) in this population. On the other hand, PI was significantly higher for natural teeth versus implants (p<0.001). Significantly higher numbers of both aerobic and anaerobic bacteria were isolated from teeth than implants (p<0.05). Analyses by gender demonstrate that both males and females had significantly higher PI scores on teeth than implants (p<0.001) and correspond with higher densities of aerobic and anaerobic organisms upon microbiological analysis.

Conclusions: Regardless of gender, results indicate higher levels of dental plaque on natural teeth than around implants. Correspondingly, higher levels of oral bacteria including aerobic and anaerobic organisms were found in dental plaque on teeth. These observations aid the dental professional develop specific recommendations to educate patients with implants.