Peri-Implant Disease Education and Diagnosis in the Pre-Doctoral Curriculum

The success and widespread use of dental implants in clinical practice along with the concomitant increase in peri-implant disease has precipitated the need to update dental implant education in the USA. This requires improvements in didactics and curriculums in dental schools to prepare dental students for clinical situations pertaining to peri-implant diseases. The objective of this study is to assess how Periodontics Pre-Doctoral Programs in the USA educate dental students to diagnose and classify peri-implant diseases and to determine if a current standard of teaching exists. Surveys were distributed to pre-doctoral program directors across 57 dental schools in the USA via a secure online survey system . The survey consisted of 19 questions pertaining to curriculum structure involving the teaching and diagnosis of peri-implant diseases. A total of 25 program directors (44%) responded and data was analyzed using descriptive statistics. The results indicate that there is no standard curriculum to teach and diagnose peri-implant diseases to dental students among respondents. Without standardized content, heterogeneity exists among dental schools and creates a divergence in dental education. In addition, patients may be more at risk of disease development without standardization and communication between practitioners may be confusing.