Peri-implantitis: A systematic review of recently published papers.

Aims: This systematic review considers possible etiological factors and definitions of “peri-implantitis”, as reported in the recent literature. Methods: An electronic search of databases plus a hand search of the most relevant journals published between January 2005 and September 2012 was performed. Results: The electronic search revealed 640 titles and the manual search yielded 14 ti-tles. From the independent double-check of the titles and abstracts 24 full texts were downloaded (18 clinical studies and 6 animal studies). From the reading of the full texts, 10 articles (4 clinical studies and 6 animal studies) were included in the present review. None of the human articles selected provided sufficient evidence to address the re-search question. In particular, no clinical evidence is available on a cause-effect rela-tionship between peri-implantitis and bacterial accumulation and/or overload. History of periodontitis and smoking seem to be correlated with a higher incidence of peri-implantitis. The animal literature is not unanimous about peri-implantitis etiology ei-ther. Conclusion: On the base of the available scientific literature, it is evident that there is not a unanimous consensus on peri-implantitis etiological factors and evidence is lack-ing about the etiology of peri-implantitis. Further, the definition itself of peri-implantis differs among studies. Based on the present findings, the soundness of using the term “peri-implantitis” appears controversial.