Implant treatment in periodontally compromised subjects--quality of life and patient satisfaction.

OBJECTIVES

The aims of this study were to determine the quality of life of periodontally compromised patients after implant treatment (primary aim) and their satisfaction with the restoration and treatment approach (secondary aim).

MATERIAL AND METHODS

In this study, 61 adult subjects were evaluated following non-surgical periodontal treatment, under regular maintenance and implant therapy with a fixed restoration. Oral health-related quality of life (OHQoL) was assessed using the German short form of the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP-G14). Patient satisfaction with the restoration and treatment procedure was investigated applying a self-designed questionnaire focusing on social-psychological aspects. Statistical analysis of the collected data was performed using Kruskal-Wallis and Man-Whitney U test for the relationship between OHIP score and number of implants, patient age and level of education.

RESULTS

The average OHIP-G14 score of the examined study population was 2.78 (SD ±4.2), while the item pain had the biggest influence on the number of points. No statistical significance was detected between the relationship of OHIP-G14 score and the number of placed implants (p = 0.98). Furthermore, there was no statistically significant correlation between OHIP-G14 score and patient age (p = 0.67) or for level of education (p = 0.39). The questionnaire focusing on patient satisfaction showed a high level of contentment in this study population. All patients declared that they would repeat the treatment and most (98.4%) would recommend it to their friends. Furthermore, a high level of satisfaction with aesthetics, stability, cleanability and speech comprehension was reported.

CONCLUSION

The examined study population showed a quality of life after implant therapy comparable to pre-existing reference values of a healthy non-restored population. There was no statistical significance between OHIP-G 14 score and the number of implants, patients' age and education level. Analysis of the satisfaction with the realized implant therapy provided consistently positive results.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE

When restoring periodontally compromised patients, implant treatment should be considered to achieve potentially higher oral health-related quality of life compared to for example removable dentures. This needs to be investigated in randomized controlled clinical trials.