Esthetics and patient-reported outcomes with dental single tooth implants 10 years after placement, a cross-sectional study

Abstract

Abstract Background Survival and success rates for single tooth implants have shown excellent results when measuring clinical outcomes. Less attention has been on patient´s perception of function and esthetics with single tooth implants. Therefore, the aim of the study was to describe patient reported function and esthetic outcomes in single tooth implants. A second aim was to compare the patient perceived esthetics with objective esthetics in single tooth implants.Methods Patients with one single-tooth implant reconstruction in the esthetic zone were selected. Two questionnaires with visual analogue scales (VAS) were filled in by the patients and intraoral photographs were taken. One questionnaire concerned satisfaction with cleaning and function and the other involved esthetics of the single tooth implant. One dentist reviewed the photographs using the pink esthetic score/white esthetic score index (PES/WES). Spearman correlation test was used to evaluate the relationship between VAS and PES/WES.Results For chewing and for speaking the scores were 0.1 respectively 1.2 on a VAS (best 0). The overall esthetics, on a VAS was 8.6 (best 10). PES/WES in the present study was 14.6 (SD ± 1.9) and 3/45 (6.7%) of the patients never reached clinical acceptability. VAS and PES or WES or PES/WES showed no correlation with Spearman´s correlation test (p = 0.435, p = 0.296, p = 0.245 respectively).Conclusions Patients reported high satisfaction with the function and the esthetics with single tooth implants. Patients’ satisfaction with the esthetics and the objective esthetics was not correlated.