Attitude in Radiographic Post-Operative Assessment of Dental Implants among Italian Dentists: A Cross-Sectional Survey

Abstract

There is a lack of evidence in the attitude and prescribing practice of implantologists in dental implant post-operative assessment; therefore, the aims of this cross-sectional study were to investigate these habits and the knowledge about radiographic aspect of retrograde peri-implantitis (RPI) among Italian implantologists. A questionnaire was sent via email to dentists randomly selected from the register of implantology and oral surgery societies. It included three questions: the preferred X-ray after implant placement, the timing of post-operative assessment and the knowledge of the RPI radiographic representation. A final sample of 434 implantologists was included in the study. The majority of them (84.3%) perform a periapical X-ray as control radiograph and picked the correct radiographic representation of RPI (74.3%), without statistically significant differences (p > 0.05) for sex, age, years of working practice and number of implants placed per year. Just 47.7% of dentists perform a control radiograph at prostheses delivery, to establish a proper baseline. A statistically significant difference (p 80 implants selecting the correct choice. To the best of authors’ knowledge, this is the first study to report data on attitude of implantologists in radiographic imaging after implant placement.

Keywords

• survey
• dental implants
• radiographic imaging
• periapical X-rays
• attitude
• retrograde-peri-implantitis