PREVALENT ORAL LESIONS AROUND DENTAL IMPLANTS: A CLINICO-PATHOLOGICAL STUDY

Background: Dental implants have been a reliable mode of treatment of tooth replacement. But of late there are
increasing concerns of oral lesions surrounding the implants. Those lesions may be as benign inflammatory
processes and even malignant changes, which affect the life-time of implants and patient health. It is of paramount
importance to get the clinico-pathological characterization of these lesions as the right categorization and treatment
cannot take place without this knowledge.
Materials and Methods: This was through a retrospective study of clinical and histopathologic data of patients who
took dental implants between 2015 and 2023 and exhibited oral lesions in the midst of the originally placed
implants. Collected data covered the demographics of patients, the demographics and detail of the implants
(location, type and age of implant), clinical appearance of lesion (size, color, texture, and anatomical location) and
histopathological diagnosis. Statistical analysis was carried out to evaluate prevalence of various types of lesions
and their relationship with many clinical factors.
Results: Magnitude of study population amounted to 215 patients and 230 peri-implant lesions. The prevalence rate
of all the oral lesions around dental implants was established to be 14.2%. Peri-implant mucositis (42.6%), periimplantitis (28.3%), and reactive hyperplasias (15.7%) were the most frequent types of the lesions. Less common
lesions were squamous cell papilloma (4.3%), traumatic fibroma (3.5%) and others benign lesions (5.6%).
Premalignant or malignant lesions found were 1.3 percent. Peri-implantitis was majorly found to be related to
implants that had been installed on posterior mandible (p < 0.05) and to implants that were over 5 years old (p <
0.01).
Conclusion: The most common oral lesions in and around the dental implant are peri-implant mucositis and periimplantitis. It is critical to early diagnose and control these inflammatory disorders so that they could not bring forth subsequent complications. The existence of some potentially malignant lesions is albeit rare, but it is important to underline the need to monitor regularly the tissues next to the implants clinically and histopathologically.