Oral Health and Dental Management

Decision making in implant dentistry: An evidence based analysis

International Conference and Exhibition on Dentistry

March 18-20, 2015 Dubai, UAE

Arwa Alsayed and Sukumaran Anil

Posters-Accepted Abstracts: Oral Health Dent Manag

Abstract:

Implant-supported prostheses have become the treatment of choice in an increasing number of patients, however, this model of treatment remains controversial under which conditions retaining a tooth may be futile and replacing a tooth with an implant- supported prosthesis may be considered over-treatment.Decision making is an essential part of oral health care. A model for the factors influencing decision in healthcare was described in 2000 by Chapman and Sonnenberg and has been adapted to discuss decision making in implant dentistry. This model describes two major components, the normative and the descriptiveapproach, which are involved in decision making. The normative aspect relies on quantitative information derived from systematic reviews and predictive models on the probabilities of treatment outcomes. The descriptive aspect in decision making involves cognitive processes and biases of both providers and patients that translate the normative information into clinical action.In implant dentistry, the evidence based and decision analysis constitutes two major approaches in treatment planning. Recently, a number of systematic reviews have been published regarding the success and survival rates of teeth following periodontal and endodontic treatments and of dental prostheses supported by teeth or implants. This review does not intend to replicate these systematic reviews; instead this presentation will focus on building upon the complied information, synthesize the provided data and apply them in a clinical context to establish the decision making process at the provider-patient level to assess which may offer greater benefits, namely treating diseased teeth with the goal of retaining them or extracting diseased teeth and replacing them with an implant-supported fixed dental prostheses.