Description

Peri-implantitis is a chronic inflammatory condition around dental implants, associated with biofilm-mediated infection. The initial stage involves the formation of a bacterial biofilm in the peri-implant tissue, resulting in mucositis, which is characterized by erythema, bleeding, exudation, and swelling. With continued biofilm accumulation, mucositis can progress to peri-implantitis, which is marked by bone destruction. Due to varying definitions of peri-implantitis, the VIII European Workshop on Periodontology established diagnostic criteria, specifying progressive bone loss of ≥ 2 mm with clinical signs of inflammation. Recently, the American Academy of Periodontology and the European Federation of Periodontology suggested a threshold of ≥ 3 mm. Based on these definitions, recent meta-analyses have shown the prevalence of peri-implantitis to be approximately 18.5% at the patient level and 12.8% at the implant level, highlighting an increasingly significant problem within the global adult population.

Currently, treating peri-implantitis is challenging, costly, and often unpredictable. The primary goals of therapy are to resolve soft-tissue inflammation and stabilize the bony attachment. This requires effective removal of bacterial biofilms and deposits from implant surfaces to enable healing on a biologically clean surface. Peri-implantitis therapy often necessitates a surgical approach that includes surface decontamination with or without the use of a bone substitute. Despite these interventions, surgically treated cases demonstrate a high failure rate, with approximately 60% of cases showing recurrence, underscoring the need for innovative therapeutic approaches.

PRF has recently emerged as a viable alternative to recombinant growth factors due to its ability to support healing naturally. It is obtained by centrifuging blood to create a coagulated plasma that includes a complex mixture of growth factors within a fibrin network. This plasma can be further processed to extract a PRF membrane by squeezing out the serum. PRF membranes are increasingly used to enhance clinical outcomes by delivering growth factors at surgical sites, either alone or in combination with dental implants and collagen membranes.

This project aims to determine whether PRF enhances regeneration in peri-implantitis defects and to compare the outcomes of surgical debridement and implant detoxification combined with PRF clot and membrane placement, against debridement and detoxification alone. For this purpose, implants with peri-implantitis defects of comparable size will be randomly assigned to either the test or control group.

Study Endpoints:

Radiographic defect fill after one year, with a cut-off level of > 1.0 mm Clinical parameters: probing pocket depth (PPD), bleeding on probing (BoP), and keratinized tissue amount in mm on the oral and buccal implant sides Soft tissue healing as assessed by the Early Wound Healing Index by Wachtel Composite clinical index based on criteria established by Renvert et al. (2018) Patient-reported outcomes assessed through a visual analog scale