Smoking as a Risk Factor for Peri-Implantitis and Dental Implant Failure - A Literature Review

Background: Despite the fact that dental implant therapy is a very successful treatment, various studies have suggested higher Implant failure rates in smokers. The aim of this study is to assess whether smokers are at an increased risk of implant failure and peri-implantitis, as compared to non-smokers. Methods: A comprehensive search on PubMed, Cochrane library and Web of Science was conducted to identify studies investigating the association between smoking and peri-implantitis and implant failure. Only studies published between 1990 and 2016 were considered in this review. Results: From the 920 search results initially retrieved, only 20 were selected after analysis of the abstracts and titles. The quality of the included papers was assessed using the Quality Assessment Tool for Quantitative Studies. It was found that the quality rating for most of the studies included was moderate or strong. The majority of the included studies showed a relationship between cigarette smoking and dental implant failure. Conclusion: The results from the included studies showed that smoking is an important risk factor for dental implant failure. However high quality studies with additional robust epidemiological and clinical investigations are required to confirm the association between the two.