1Postgraduate, Department of Prosthodontics, M.A. Rangoonwala College of Dental Sciences and Research Centre, Pune, India
2Professor, Department of Prosthodontics, M.A. Rangoonwala College of Dental Sciences and Research Centre, Pune, India
3Professor and Head of Department, Department of Oral Pathology and Microbiology, D.Y. Patil Dental College, Pimpri, Pune, India
*Address for Correspondence: Dr. Tabrez Lakha Postgraduate, Department of Prosthodontics, M. A. Rangoonwala College of Dental Sciences and Research Centre, Azam Campus, Hidayatullah Road, Pune 411011. E-mail: tabrezlakha@gmail.com
Online published on 21 September, 2016.
Although implants have shown to have a high success rate, clinicians are also called upon to encounter numerous complications and failures. Among the numerous reasons of failures, peri-implantitis is reported to account for 10% of the failures. As the oral cavity provides a natural habitat for various micro-organism due to its non-shedding surface, there is some evidence that gram-negative anaerobic rods colonize around the implant leading to peri-implanitis. This colonization is dependent on various factors such as the micro-gap at the implant-abutment interface, the precision of fit, degree of micro-movement and applied torque.
The aim of this article is to provide an overview of current literature on bacterial colonization on the implant surface and the influence of different implant-abutment designs on bacterial colonization.
An electronic search was conducted using the PubMed (Medline), PubMed central and Google scholar to identify articles published on bacterial colonization at the implant-abutment interface. The following search words were used: microbioleakage at implant-abutment interface, surface characteristics/roughness of implants, bacterial adhesion on dental implants, bacterial colonization at implant abutment surface. The articles included in the review comprises of in vitro studies, in vivo studies, review Abstracts and review articles.
The total number of articles for the key words" microbioleakage at implant-abutment interface" were 29 and for the key words" bacterial colonization at implant abutment interface" were 17. After considering the inclusive and exclusive criteria, case report, case series and review articles were excluded. 11 articles were considered eligible based on their relevance to the subject.
Although micro-gap formation inevitably occurs at the implant-abutment interface. The current literature highlights that the formation of this micro-gap is influenced by the type of implant-abutment design used. Though the results are insignificant, recent in vivo and in vitro studies have proved that external hexagon results in higher micro leakage compared to other connections used. Morse-taper connections shows the least amount of microbial leakage.
Implant-abutment interface, Microbial leakage, Bacterial colonization
