Obesity and dental implant treatment: a review

Aim Success of dental implants depends mainly on osseointegration between bone and titanium surface. Since osseointegration relies on balanced bone turnover, it can be assumed that any conditions that interfere with homeostasis of bone modelling/remodeling might be detrimental to survival of dental implants. Obesity has become a serious public health problem, and has been shown to be closely linked to a wide array of pathophysiologic consequences, including insulin resistance or pre-diabetes. Obese-insulin resistance or prediabetic condition is characterized by hyperinsulinemia with euglycemia. The impacts of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) on the success of dental implants and the factors to improve osseointegration in diabetic condition have been thoroughly investigated. Much evidence demonstrated that T2DM impaired the bone healing around dental implants, possibly due to hyperglycemic condition. However, the effect of obese-insulin resistant condition or pre-diabetes on survival of dental implants has not been investigated. This review aims to summarize the current findings of effect of obesity toward bone health and osseointegration of dental implants. Conclusion The studies favor the relatively negative impact of diabetes on osseointegration, but more scientific studies are necessary.