It has long been believed in the medical field that dental implants shouldn't be installed in certain categories of diabetic patients. Indeed, patients whose diabetes was uncontrolled used to be discouraged from requesting dental implant installations because of the higher risk of failure. However, a new study reveals that this traditional belief is false, and that dental implants are safe with all diabetic patients. If you're a professional dentist, then please read on to find out about the results of this study, and the implications for you and your patients.
The results of the study
Dr. Oates, along with his colleagues, found that dental implants are perfectly viable on any diabetic patient, regardless of whether the condition is being monitored or not. For several decades, diabetes was linked as the major reason for the survival issues of dental implants.
Nevertheless, Dr. Oates & Co. pointed out a huge flaw in the methodology applied on older related research studies. Indeed, they showed that the primary purpose of those studies was to assess the success of the integration of dental implants, rather than their stability over the time.
As you might know, the installation of dental implants is conducted in multiple sessions as it features a number of risks. After the natural tooth gets pulled out, the root must be given the time to properly heal before the implant can be installed. So if a study designed to assess the survival of the dental implant is conducted while this process is incomplete, then its conclusions will automatically be limited.
Such limitations have been addressed in the study that Dr. Oates and his team of researchers conducted, as the health status of all subjects was checked up to one year after the day the implants had been successfully integrated.
What does these results mean for you and your patients?
There are many dentists who used to turn down patients after discovering that they were diabetic. Now they no longer have a reason to do that. On the other hand, diabetic patients who can benefit from having dental implants may request these without fearing to develop additional health conditions.
Now that you know why the traditional belief about the safety of dental implants with diabetic patients is incorrect, you no longer have a valid reason to deny your professional services to a person suffering from diabetes, whether or not their condition is under control. For more information, visit http://www.charlottesvilledentistry.com/.
Share14 April 2015
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