Surgical Strategies in Elderly Implant Patients

Abstract

The mean age of candidates for implant surgery as well as dental patients is generally increasing due to the growing life expectancy worldwide. While being older per se is no contraindication for implant therapy, it often implies medical conditions and more medication (polypharmacy). These aspects often reduce the resilience of patients and lead to increased risk of complications after implant surgery. The present review first describes typical dental and medical conditions of the elderly and their relevance to implant surgery. The main focus is subsequently set on surgical strategies in elderly patients to minimize the related morbidity without compromising the treatment outcome. Whenever possible, a standard implant placement without simultaneous bone grafting is preferred to offer a low-morbidity procedure. The use of short implants as well as narrow diameter implants is important to avoid bone grafting procedures. In addition, the frequency of flapless implant placement using computer-assisted implant surgery (CAIS) has increased considerably over the past 5 years and has become a highly attractive surgical approach in terms of minimal invasiveness