A SYSTEMATIC REVIEW AND META-ANALYSIS OF DENTAL IMPLANTS IN PATIENTS WITH DIABETES MELLITUS

This review aimed to assess the effects of diabetes mellitus on dental implant failure rates and marginal bone loss (MBL). An electronic search was conducted across three databases, supplemented by a manual search of relevant journals. Meta-analyses and meta-regressions were performed to examine how the odds ratio (OR) and MBL were influenced by follow-up duration. A total of 89 studies were included in the review, encompassing 5,510 implants in diabetic patients and 62,780 in non-diabetic patients. Pairwise meta-analysis revealed a higher failure risk for implants in diabetic patients compared to non-diabetic patients (OR 1.777, p < 0.001). Implant failure was significantly more frequent in type 1 diabetes patients than in type 2 (OR 4.477, p = 0.032). Statistically significant differences in implant failure rates were observed between the maxilla and mandible, with significance only in the maxilla. The mean difference (MD) in MBL between diabetic and non-diabetic patients was 0.776 mm (p = 0.027), with an estimated MBL MD increase of 0.032 mm per additional month of follow-up (p < 0.001). Additionally, there was an estimated OR decrease of 0.007 for each extra month of follow-up (p = 0.048). In conclusion, dental implants in diabetic patients showed a 77.7% higher failure risk compared to those in non-diabetic patients.