Advances in Dental Research, Vol 7, 191-195, Copyright © 1993 by International & American Associations for Dental Research
Reproducibility and detection threshold of peri-implant diagnostics
D. van Steenberghe and M. Quirynen
Department of Periodontology, School of Dentistry, Catholic University, Leuven, Belgium.
There is an increasing awareness that, for clinical monitoring of oral
implants, there is a need for reliable diagnostics and possibly prognostic
parameters. Indeed, reports have too often limited results to an inventory
of failures, while no mention was made of progressive marginal bone loss or
other symptoms of a future failure. Several parameters, such as marginal
bone level assessment and/or probing attachment level, give a precision of
up to 0.5 mm. Both measurements also seem related. The damping
characteristics of the individual implant/bone unit also offer a highly
reproducible diagnostic tool. The Periotest allows for detection of
subclinical mobilities, and 95% of repeated measurements fall within a
range of one unit on the arbitrary scale. So far, these three parameters
offer no prognostic value.
