Effect of osteopenia and osteoporosis on failure of first and second dental implants: a retrospective observational study.

Purpose: The present study evaluated osteopenia (OPN) and osteoporosis (OP) as risk factors for dental implant failure and repeat failure.

Methods: We performed a retrospective study on over 100 randomly selected patients per analysis to determine the effect of health status, smoking status, sex, implant location and operative conditions on first and second (re-implantation) implant survival. Analyses were conducted first using chi-squared test, followed by multiple logistic regression for significant variables.

Results: In the cohort examining the effect of myriad risk factors on second implant survival, it was found that OPN and OP greatly impacted implant survival, wherein patients with osteoporosis or osteopenia had significantly more implant failures (p = 0.0353). Sex and operative conditions had no effect on implant survival, while implant location showed a notable effect wherein significantly more failures occurred in the maxilla vs mandible (p = 0.0299). Upon finding that OPN and OP have a significant effect on second implant survival, we conducted an additional study focusing on the impact of health status. Based on the multiple logistical regression analysis, we found that OPN and OP are the most significant factor in first implant survival (p = 0.0065), followed by diabetes (p = 0.0297). Importantly, it was observed that early implant failure is also significantly correlated with osteoporosis (p = 0.0044).

Conclusion: We show here a marked relationship in which the risk of first and second implant failure are significantly higher in patients with osteoporosis and osteopenia.