title: Role of supportive maintenance therapy on implant survival: a university-based 17 years retrospective analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The objective of this study was to determine whether professional maintenance appointments were related to a decrease on dental implant loss.
  
  
  METHODS
  We performed a retrospective review (1995-2012) of 1020 patient dental charts to collect data including a cadre of different variables such as age, gender, race, diabetes, osteoporosis, jaw location, implant dimensions and professional maintenance therapy. As a patient may have multiple implants which are correlated, we selected one random implant per patient to assure independence of observations assumption of the Cox proportional hazards regression model. Data analysis was performed using Kaplan-Meier survival curves and multivariate analysis using Cox proportional hazards regression analysis.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Our results demonstrate that subjects with no maintenance had the lowest cumulative survival rate as compared to subjects with regular maintenance. In a multivariate Cox regression model, regular maintenance patients had the dental implant failure rate reduced by 90% as compared to no maintenance (P = 0.001). If patients had less than one maintenance visit per year, the failure rate was reduced by 60% as compared to no maintenance, but the difference was not statistically significant (P = 0.08).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  From this research, we conclude that a professional administered periodontal maintenance at least on an annual basis is a critical factor for implant survival.
authors.affiliation: Department of Periodontics, East Carolina University, Greenville, NC, USA. Gayi15@ecu.edu.
authors.forename: I C
authors.initials: IC
authors.lastname: Gay
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostics and Biomedical Sciences, School of Dentistry, University of Texas, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: D T
authors.initials: DT
authors.lastname: Tran
authors.affiliation: Department of Periodontics and Dental Hygiene, School of Dentistry, University of Texas, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Weltman
authors.affiliation: Department of Periodontics and Dental Hygiene, School of Dentistry, University of Texas, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Parthasarathy
authors.affiliation: Department of Periodontics and Dental Hygiene, School of Dentistry, University of Texas, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: J
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Diaz-Rodriguez
authors.affiliation: Department of Diagnostics and Biomedical Sciences, School of Dentistry, University of Texas, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Walji
authors.affiliation: Human Genetics Center, Division of Biostatistics, School of Public Health, University of Texas, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: Y
authors.initials: Y
authors.lastname: Fu
authors.affiliation: Department of Periodontics and Dental Hygiene, School of Dentistry, University of Texas, Houston, TX, USA.
authors.forename: L
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Friedman
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003757:Dental Implantation / Q000379:methods*; D015921:Dental Implants; D019232:Dental Restoration Failure / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D053208:Kaplan-Meier Estimate; D008283:Maintenance; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D015921:Dental Implants
keywords: dental maintenance; implant failure; implant survival rate; retrospective study