The Association of Rheumatoid Arthritis and Systemic Lupus Erythematosus with Failing Implants

Objectives: Peri-implantitis is a chronic inflammatory disease that affects the bone surrounding the implant. It has become a common problem affecting the long-term survival of the implant with the increased use of implants for replacing the missing teeth. There are few studies that have examined the association between failing implants and Systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) and Chronic Periodontitis (CP) with varying conclusions. The aim of this retrospective study is to compare and assess the risk for peri-implantitis in patients with SLE, RA, periodontitis. Materials and Methods: Dental and medical patient records were retrospectively reviewed from electronic health records of Temple University School of Dentistry, Philadelphia, United States between 2008-2021 for peri-implantitis, systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and Chronic periodontitis (CP). Peri-implantitis, Periodontitis are diagnosed based on Schwartz criteria and World Workshop 2017 classification. SLE & RA were identified as part of medical history reported by the patient. Results: A total of 1231 patient records were analyzed. 832 patients (67.58%) had at least one systemic disease and 399 patients (32.25%) were systemically healthy patients. 109 patients (13.10%) patients who had systemic condition had peri-implantitis and 86.89% did not have any peri-implantitis. 3 patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis had periimplantitis and only 12 patients with periodontitis had peri-implantitis. 47 Systemic Lupus Erythematosus patients did not have peri-implantitis. Conclusions: The results of the present study indicate that Rheumatoid arthritis, Systemic lupus erythromatosus and Chronic periodontitis did not pose any significant risk of getting peri-implantitis than systemically healthy patients.