Failure of Orthodontic Mini-implants by Patient Age, Sex, and Arch; Number of Primary Insertions; and Frequency of Reinsertions After Failure: An Analysis of the Implant Failure Rate and Patient Failure Rate

This study aimed to analyze and compare the failure rate of orthodontic miniimplants (OMIs) in terms of the number of implants (implant failure rate [IFR]) and patients (patient failure rate [PFR]) according to the age, sex, and arch of the patients, the number of primary insertions, and frequency of reinsertions after failure. A total of 394 OMIs (1.2 mm in diameter; 7.0 mm in length) were inserted in 125 patients (24 male and 101 female, mean age 21.95 ± 7.60 years). IFR and PFR were evaluated according to the age and sex of the patient, the number of primary insertions, and the frequency of reinsertions after failure. PFR was 40.08% and IFR was 18.27% after the first insertions. PFR was higher than IFR regardless of the number of OMIs inserted. IFR increased with an increase in the frequency of reinsertions, reaching 66.67% after the fourth insertion, whereas PFR decreased to 25.00% after the second insertion and to 66.67% after the third and fourth insertions. The overall PFR and IFR were 40.80% and 19.29%, respectively. Although male patients, young patients, and location in the mandible showed higher PFR and IFR, there were no significant differences between PFR and IFR according to the sex, age, or arch. PFR was higher than IFR in this study, indicating that the treatment process could be more strongly affected by PFR than IFR. The failure rate can increase with the frequency of OMI reinsertions after failure. Sex, age, and arch may have no correlation with primary or recurrent OMI failure.