Dental implants improve quality of life for women with Sjögren’s: Study
Treatment safe, shows good prognosis over 5 years despite dry mouth
Dental implants for women with primary Sjögren’s disease — who commonly experience problems with their teeth due to dry mouth — appear to work well and improve quality of life over five years, with gum health and appearance similar to women without the disease, a new study found.
According to the researchers, single dental implants thus are a “valid option for replacing missing teeth” for these patients.
“Treatment with dental implants is a safe and feasible alternative to other prosthetic treatments such as partial dentures or fixed partial dentures … with limited risk of complications and a good prognosis in a 5-year perspective,” the researchers wrote.
The study, “Prognosis of Single Implant-Supported Prosthesis in Patients With Primary Sjögren’s Syndrome: A Five-Year Prospective Clinical Study,” by researchers from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark, was published in the journal Clinical Oral Implants Research.
Investigating the outcomes of dental implants in women with Sjögren’s
In Sjögren’s disease, the immune system mistakenly damages the glands that control moisture in the body, causing symptoms such as dry eyes and a dry mouth, due to low production of tears and saliva. Primary Sjögren’s occurs on its own, that is, it’s not secondary to another autoimmune disease.
Because saliva helps to protect teeth from decay, people with Sjögren’s often experience dental problems such as cavities and infection. This makes it unclear how well dental treatments, such as dental implants to replace lost teeth, will work in patients, the majority of whom are women older than 40.
Dental implants include an implant body placed in the jawbone, acting as the tooth’s root, and an abutment, usually attached by a screw. The abutment extends through the gums to hold the artificial tooth in place and restore the person’s ability to chew. However, some complications may cause dental implants to become loose.
The prospective study (NCT04960605) compared the success of dental implants in 23 women with primary Sjögren’s disease, who had a mean age of 57.4, versus 24 age-matched women without the disease who also needed tooth replacement. The researchers also looked at whether dental implants improved quality of life over five years.
All patients except one received single crowns on titanium abutments. Most crowns (42) were held in place by a screw, while five were cemented. Technical complications such as loosening were rare, and as frequent in one group as in the other.
Two months after replacing single lost teeth with dental implants, the women with primary Sjögren’s disease had significantly worse dental health than their counterparts. This was shown by a higher mean DMFT score — indicating more decayed, missing, or filled teeth — compared with the control group (16.7 vs. 12 teeth).
Women with primary Sjögren’s also experienced more severe symptoms of dry mouth and significantly slower saliva flow over the five years of follow-up, both when unstimulated and when chewing. Saliva flow was measured after patients didn’t eat, drink, or brush their teeth for at least one hour.
Despite these differences, all dental implants remained stable, with no signs of loosening. There were no differences in plaque buildup, bone loss, or how the dental implants looked after five years between the two groups, though the women with primary Sjögren’s disease had more inflamed gums.
Replacement of missing single teeth with dental implants was successful. … Treatment with dental implants was also associated with significant improvement of the [patients’] oral health-related quality of life.
The participants with primary Sjögren’s reported worse oral health-related quality of life than controls over the five years of follow-up, however, both groups saw significant improvements over time, indicating a positive impact of dental implants on quality of life.
“Replacement of missing single teeth with dental implants was successful,” the researchers wrote, noting “the biological outcomes … as well as technical and clinician-reported aesthetic outcomes did not differ between the two groups.”
The team concluded that “treatment with dental implants was also associated with significant improvement of the [patients’] oral health-related quality of life.”
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