Full-mouth rehabilitation with dental implants viable option for patients with cognitive and physical disabilities: Study

The researchers suggest that clinicians should consider this full-mouth rehabilitation with dental implants under general anesthesia (GA) as a viable option for cognitively and physically disabled patients who might traditionally be excluded owing to perceived risks.

Oral rehabilitation with implants is an alternative to the provision of removable dentures in all patients for whom missing teeth require replacement. However, individuals with mental health, cognitive issues, and/or physical disabilities are often excluded from implant-supported prostheses due to the high perceived failure risk linked to poor oral health, systemic conditions, or the presence of parafunction.

Against the above background, Marie-Sophie Bogner, Guy´s & St Thomas´ NHS Foundation Trust, London, United Kingdom, and colleagues aimed to describe the outcomes, protocols, and survival rates of oral rehabilitation with implant-supported prostheses in patients with physical and cognitive disabilities treated under GA in a French unit of Special Care Dentistry.

For this purpose, the researchers conducted a retrospective cohort study on patient files. Data included demographics and information about the prosthetic and surgical phases of rehabilitation. Radiological and clinical reports were retrieved to establish the success, survival, and failure rates of implant placement as per the Health Scale for Dental Implants (HDSI) classification.

Two hundred ninety-eight dental implants had been placed under general anesthesia in 57 patients between 2007 and 2021.

The researchers reported the following findings:

• The prevalence of technical and biological postoperative complications was 14% and 13%, respectively.
• Thirty implants were determined to be failures.
• The estimated survival time in the population studied for loaded implants was 144.7 months.
• The cumulative survival rate was estimated to be 86% at 157 months.

To conclude, the study found implant-supported prostheses to be effective and that oral rehabilitation carried out under the conditions described was determined to be stable.

Reference:

Bogner MS, Chambas V, Veyrune JL, Faulks D, Hennequin M. Oral implant rehabilitation under general anesthesia for patients with cognitive and physical disabilities: A 14-year cohort study. J Prosthet Dent. 2024 Jan 30:S0022-3913(24)00012-X. doi: 10.1016/j.prosdent.2024.01.012. Epub ahead of print. PMID: 38296761.