Do mucositis lesions around implants differ from gingivitis lesions around teeth?

Abstract

Background: The purpose of this review was to compare peri-implant mucositis and gingivitis with respect to the pathogenesis aspects.

Search strategy: An electronic search was performed up to June 2010 based on the PubMed database of the National Library of Medicine and The Cochrane Library of the Cochrane Collaboration (CENTRAL). A hand search considered the bibliography of a recently published review on the same topic (Heitz-Mayfield & Lang 2010).

Results: The host response to biofilms does not differ substantially at teeth or implants. The most obvious sign clinically is the development of an inflammatory lesion as a result of the bacterial challenge. Gingivitis at teeth or peri-implant mucositis at implants are precursors for more detrimental lesions, and hence have to be diagnosed properly and prevented by applying anti-infective therapy. Non-surgical interventions are usually sufficient for the treatment of both gingivitis and mucositis.

Conclusions: Gingivitis and peri-implant mucositis are not fundamentally different from pathogenesis and diagnosis points of view.