Dental implants and diabetes: conditions for success.

AIMS: To assess the success of dental-implant treatment in patients with diabetes.
BACKGROUND: Dental-implant treatment is an efficient means of replacing lost teeth. However, diabetes can be considered a relative contraindication for this type of treatment because of the slightly higher failure rate compared with populations without diabetes. RECOMMENDATIONS: Prerequisite selection of suitable diabetic patients, eradication of co-morbidities (poor oral hygiene, cigarette-smoking, periodontitis), stabilization of glycaemic control (HbA(1c) at around 7%) and preventative measures against infection can increase the success of dental implantation in diabetic patients to a satisfactory rate of 85-95%.
CONCLUSION: Implant surgery is never a matter of urgency; thus, diabetes patients with the best chances of success should be conjointly selected and prepared by both dental and diabetes clinicians.