Influence of Lateral Hard-Tissue Grafting on Peri-Implant Health or Disease: A Cross-Sectional Study.

Aim: To investigate the influence of lateral hard-tissue grafting performed simultaneously to implant placement on peri-implant health or disease.

Materials and methods: A total of 299 patients exhibiting 897 implants placed either simultaneously with lateral bone grafting using a bovine bone mineral with or without adjunctive native collagen membrane (n = 131/269 patients/implants; LatGr group) or at pristine bone sites without lateral bone grafting (n = 168/628 patients/implants; NoGr group) were enrolled in this cross-sectional analysis. Clinical outcomes (i.e., modified plaque index (mPI), bleeding on probing (BOP), probing depth (PD), mucosal recession (MR)), keratinized mucosa (KM), and the frequency of peri-implant disease were evaluated. Univariate and multiple ordinal regression analyses with mixed effects were conducted to identify factors associated with peri-implant disease.

Results: After a mean follow-up period of 59.47 ± 24.66 months, mPI, BOP, and KM values were significantly higher in the control group, whereas no difference between the groups was found for PD and MR. Peri-implantitis was diagnosed in 31.30% of patients and 13.4% of implants in the LatGr group, and in 32.74% of patients and 24.8% of implants in the NoGr group. The corresponding values for peri-implant mucositis at the patient and implant level in the LatGr and NoGr groups were 29.77% and 29.0%, and 26.19% and 28.5%, respectively. Implants of the LatGr group were associated with a significantly lower chance to be affected by peri-implant disease (OR = 0.69, 95%-CI: (-0.72, -0.03), p = 0.032). The presence of plaque at implant sites and smoking significantly correlated with peri-implant disease (OR = 2.92, 95%-CI: (2.11, 4.03), p < 0.001 and OR = 0.22; 95%-CI: (0.06, 0.84), p = 0.027, respectively).

Conclusions: Lateral hard-tissue grafting performed simultaneously with implant placement demonstrated comparable peri-implant tissue health to pristine bone sites without lateral bone grafting.