Purpose: Implant dentistry has become one of the most successful dentistry techniques for replacing missing teeth. The success rate of implant dentistry is above 80%. However, peri-implantitis is a later complication of implant dentistry that if untreated, can lead to implant loss. One of the hypotized causes of peri-implantis is the bacterial leakage at the level of implant-abutment connection. Bacterial leakage is favored to the presence of a micro gap at the implant-abutment interface, allowing microorganisms to penetrate and colonize the inner part of the implant leading to biofilm accumulation and consequently to peri-implantitis development.
Materials and methods: To identify the capability of the implant to protect the internal space from the external environment, the passage of genetically modified Escherichia coli across implant-abutment interface was evaluated. Implants were immerged in a bacterial culture for twenty-four hours and then bacteria amount was measured inside implant-abutment interface with Real-time PCR.
Results: Bacteria were detected inside all studied implants, with a median percentage of 9%.
Conclusions: The reported results are better to those of previous studies carried out on different implant systems. Until now, none implant-abutment system has been proven to seal the gap between implant and abutment.
Keywords: bacterial leakage; bone resorption; implant dentistry; implant-abutment connection; peri-implantitis.