New study sheds light on suspected peri-implantitis culprit

Titanium microparticles originating from dental implants may not play a role in peri-implantitis.

In a study published in Communications Medicine, researchers recruited 21 patients with dental implant-supported crowns or prostheses. They collected soft tissue biopsies from the implant sites exhibiting evidence of peri-implantitis as well as adjacent sites with clinically healthy conditions or mild inflammation and subsequently examined the prevalence of titanium microparticles within the samples.

The researchers discovered that the titanium microparticles were common in a two-millimeter portion of the soft tissue surrounding the dental implants; however, there were no statistically significant variations in the occurrence of the particles in sites with or without peri-implantitis in the same patient. Further, a set of 16 differentially expressed genes whose functions were related to immune response regulation and epithelial development were potentially correlated of titanium microparticle density.

Although the findings indicated that titanium microparticle occurrence was not associated with peri-implantitis, further research is needed to better understand and validate the results of the study.

Read more: Communications Medicine

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