Purpose: To provide an overview of the influence of medical and geriatric factors on implant survival in order to form clinical recommendations for the practitioner.
Materials and Methods: This narrative literature review was performed to address the following questions: (1) Is age (> 75 years) a risk factor for implant survival?; (2) Is diabetes mellitus a risk factor for implant survival?; and (3) Is antiresorptive therapy a risk factor for implant survival? The PubMed, Web of Knowledge (Thomson Reuters), and Google Scholar databases were searched for systematic reviews and research papers of evidence level II and above that were published up to February 2019 for each topic.
Results: (1) Age > 75 years does not affect implant survival according to short-term follow up (1 to 5 years). However, polypharmacy should be considered in this patient group. (2) Diabetes mellitus is not a risk factor for implant survival in the short term, but there is no information on appropriate perioperative treatment and wound closure. There is little evidence in the literature on the success of bone grafting and progressive loading protocols in diabetic patients. (3) Implant therapy cannot be recommended in patients under high-dose bisphosphonate and antibody therapy. Bone grafting should be avoided under antiresorptive therapy. There are no treatment regimens available for patients with periimplantitis receiving antiresorptive medication.
Conclusion: This review suggests that the risk assessment for an implant patient should not be based on age, but rather on the patient’s specific risk factors, such as former and current diseases and medication.