An exploratory study to investigate if patients are able to aid the early diagnosis of peri-implant complications.

OBJECTIVES: This study investigated if the patient can have a role in reporting early peri-implant complications.

DESIGN: An exploratory, single-centred study comparing patient's perceptions of implant success to the clinical success at an examination. SETTING, MATERIALS AND METHODS :Seventy-five patients were randomly selected from patients who had received implant treatment at an implant referral practice. Phase 1 - Patient perception: Patients were asked to complete a questionnaire relating to the health of their implants. Phase 2 - Clinical examination: The patients were examined for implant health/disease.

MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: The responses from the patient perception questionnaires were correlated to the variables of the clinical examination. The null hypothesis 'Patients cannot perceive the difference between a successful implant and an implant that is suffering from complications' was then tested using Fisher's exact test.

RESULTS: All the variables tested statistically show a positive association between patient perception and clinical examination (p <0.001). All variables gave a significant result for Fisher's exact test. Therefore, the null hypothesis can be rejected.

CONCLUSIONS: This study demonstrated that using validated questions an educated patient can perceive peri-implant health/disease. This can play a role in the early diagnosis of peri-implant complications.