A survey of US dental schools on predoctoral implant curricula with emphasis on diagnosing and treating implant complications.

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM: Implant complications have been reported to occur at high rates and frequencies. Whether these high rates are observed in predoctoral implant programs and whether future dentists are educated to diagnose and treat implant complications is unknown. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to analyze and report the results of a survey on US predoctoral curricula related to implant treatment and with an emphasis on diagnosing and treating implant complications. MATERIAL AND METHODS: A 26-question survey was distributed to all (66) US dental schools. In addition to 3 questions regarding descriptive information about each school, 13 questions were used to calculate a curriculum composite score that was used to assess the quality of the school's implant curriculum. The remaining survey topics and number of questions included frequency of complications (2), tracking and types of complications (6), and school-reported student preparedness to identify or treat implant complications (2). A Kruskal-Wallis test was used to evaluate the relationship between the curriculum composite scores and student preparedness to diagnose and treat implant complications. RESULTS: Twenty-eight schools responded to the survey for a response rate of 42.4%, and 23 schools completed the entire survey (completion rate 34.8%). Fifteen schools (65.2%) reported methods of recording implant complications, and 8 of 23 schools (34.8%) reported methods of assessing student knowledge in recognizing implant complications. Only 2 schools reported methods of assessing student preparedness to treat implant complications. Most implant complications were mechanical (64.3%), followed by biological (28.6%) and esthetic (7.1%). The prostheses associated with the most complications were implant overdentures (39.1%), followed by single crowns (34.8%) and fixed partial dentures (4.3%). A positive relational trend was observed between reported student preparedness to recognize and treat implant complications and curriculum composite scores. CONCLUSIONS: Within the limitation of this survey-based study, implant curricula in US dental schools should consider improving the scope of teaching the diagnosis and treatment of implant complications. The implant complications observed at US dental schools showed similar trends to those reported in the literature.