Methods

The survey was conducted during 3 months from August to October 2015 by non-anonymous questionnaire (four pages on A4 paper) including questions developed by the authors of the present study (Table 1). The survey sheets were sent and collected by post mail.

The target population of the survey was 2339 representative members or dental specialists belonging to any of the following three organizations: Japanese Society of Oral Implantology and Japanese Society of Gerodontology as academic societies relevant to implants and home-visit dental care, respectively, and Japan Prosthodontic Society as an academic society related to both fields. A total of 924 people responded to the questionnaire (retrieval rate 40%). Figure 1 gives a breakdown of the societies to which the respondents belonged.

The present study examined the following four aspects related to implant patients and home-visit dental care.

1. The situation of hospitalization/in-home convalescence as well as consultation about post-operative implant care sought by patients’ families and how dentists address this.
2. Proportion of individuals who have implants, the situation of oral self-care, and the dentists who provided implant treatment, among patients receiving home-visit dental care.
3. Methods to identify the presence of implants in patients receiving home-visit dental care.
4. Usage status of the implant card retained by the above patients (“implant card” refers to the card which described the record of implant placed in the patient, such as the implant manufacturer, implant type, length, diameter. This questionnaire does not require a publisher, such as manufacturers and a society. If the respondent replies that the implant card had been used, he/she had written the publisher.).

Analyses of the relationship between necessary variables were performed by the χ² test.

The present study was carried out with the approval of the Ethics Committee of the Japanese Society of Oral Implantology (Number 2015-1).