Periopathic Bacterial Transmission from Periodontal Pockets of Natural Teeth to Peri-implant Sulci

Abstract

It has been reported that periopathic bacterial colonization occurs in peri-implant sulci as well as periodontal pockets. When natural teeth and implants co-exist in the same oral cavity, peri-implantitis may occur, owing to periopathic bacterial transmission from periodontal pockets of natural teeth to peri-implant sulci.
In this study, we investigated the possibility of transmission of four periopathic bacteria (Porphyromonas gingivalis, Prevotella intermedia, Prevotella nigrescens, Fusobacterium nucleatum) from natural teeth to implants in the same oral cavity.
We collected subgingival plaque from 113 implants and 92 natural teeth of 50 partially edentulous patients, and the four periopathic bacteria were detected by arbitrarily primed polymerase chain reaction (AP-PCR). The matched strains existed in more than 70%. This suggests that the bacterial transmission occurs from the remaining natural teeth to peri-implant sulci. Therefore, implant should be done after periodontal treatment of the remaining natural teeth.
When periopathic bacteria were detected within the subgingival plaque obtained from either natural teeth or implants, the same bacterial species were also found with high frequency of more than 80% within saliva. So, the bacterial transmission by saliva may occur from the remaining natural teeth to implants within the same oral cavity. This result suggests that saliva is useful for bacterial examination to predict peri-implantitis without injury of peri-implant sulci caused by probing.