The present study examines the success rates of oxide-coated implants in subjects with treated periodontal disease. Several long-term clinical studies on periodontally healthy subjects have revealed survival rates of 97.1 to 99.2% for oxide-coated implants [10, 24, 25]. The results of the present study show a comparable implant survival rate (96.2% in GAP and 97.1% in GCP subjects) for subjects with treated periodontal disease.

These findings confirm numerous studies indicating that implants with different surfaces in subjects with generalized chronic periodontitis have a survival rate of over 90% after 5 years [23, 26,27,28,29,30,31]. In a prospective study with GCP subjects, implants with rough surfaces showed a survival rate of 96.0% after an observation period of 11.6 years [32]. However, the implant survival rate for GAP subjects was 80.0%, after a follow-up period of 8.3 years. The lower survival rate of implants in patients with GAP was also present on implants with turned surfaces. In a prospective 5- to 16-year study, the survival rate was only 83.3% [23].

When reflecting the higher survival rate of implants in GAP subjects in the present study, one has to consider the small number of subjects in this group as well as the short follow up of 6 years. In a systematic review, comparing implant survival rates for GAP subjects in long-term studies, it was shown that survival rates ranged from 97.4 to 100% in studies with a follow-up period of < 5 years, falling to 83.3 to 96.0% for studies with longer observation periods [33].

Although implant survival rates given in different studies are comparable, analyzing mucositis and peri-implantitis prevalence is challenging. In the present study, GCP subjects showed mucositis in 7.7% and peri-implantitis in 12.5% of the implants. The GAP group displayed mucositis in 28.0% and peri-implantitis in 32.0% of the implants. A prospective 10-year study that examined GCP subjects with rough surface implants revealed a slightly higher peri-implantitis rate (28.6%) [31]. In a 3- to 16-year study, GAP subjects with turned surfaces implants displayed a higher mucositis (56.0%) and a comparable peri-implantitis rate (26.0%) [23].