Objective: To assess the influence of systemic sclerosis (SSc) on the survival rate of dental implants in SSc patients receiving implant-supported treatments.
Methods: The Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-analysis (PRISMA) Statement and the Cochrane Collaboration's guiding principles were followed during the study's execution. The data from three databases, PubMed, Google Scholar, and Scopus, available until January 2023, were used to compile the material for our research. Only English-language publications were submitted for this research and evaluated based on their titles, abstracts, and full texts. For performing a quality assessment, quality scores were calculated.
Results: The total number of patients and implants studied were 37 and 153, respectively, all having had scleroderma. The patients' ages ranged from 28 to 77 years old, with a mean (SD) age of 58.16 (12.88). All the patients in the case reports and most in the case series study were female. The range of follow-up duration was from 1 to 10 years. In case report studies, the survival rate was 100%; in case series, it was 89.2%.
Conclusion: The SSc status had no discernible impact on the implant survival rate. Implant-based treatments in SSc patients should not worsen the overall morbidity and should not conflict with systemic treatments. Before starting implant therapy, a thorough risk assessment is essential, though.
Keywords: dental implants; implant-supported dental prosthesis; survival rate; systemic scleroderma; systemic sclerosis.
© 2023 The Authors. Immunity, Inflammation and Disease published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.