An exploratory study to investigate if patients are able to aid the early diagnosis of peri-implant complications.
- Resource Type
- Academic Journal
- Authors
- Wright, S; Archer, C
- Source
- British Dental Journal (BR DENT J), 6/12/2015; 218(11): 637-640. (4p)
- Subject
- Language
- English
- ISSN
- 0007-0610
Objectives: This study investigated if the patient can have a role in reporting early peri-implant complications.Design: An exploratory, single-centred study comparing patient's perceptions of implant success to the clinical success at an examination. SETTING, MATERIALS AND METHODS :Seventy-five patients were randomly selected from patients who had received implant treatment at an implant referral practice. Phase 1 - Patient perception: Patients were asked to complete a questionnaire relating to the health of their implants. Phase 2 - Clinical examination: The patients were examined for implant health/disease.Main Outcome Measures: The responses from the patient perception questionnaires were correlated to the variables of the clinical examination. The null hypothesis 'Patients cannot perceive the difference between a successful implant and an implant that is suffering from complications' was then tested using Fisher's exact test.Results: All the variables tested statistically show a positive association between patient perception and clinical examination (p <0.001). All variables gave a significant result for Fisher's exact test. Therefore, the null hypothesis can be rejected.Conclusions: This study demonstrated that using validated questions an educated patient can perceive peri-implant health/disease. This can play a role in the early diagnosis of peri-implant complications.