Dear Editor,
We read most of the articles published in your journal and apply them in our day-to-day practice with great interest. Herein, we would like to bring to your notice the inexplicable type of implant failure, that is, orphan implants. These failures occur when the dentist places an implant and, for some reason, the patient is lost to follow-up but visits a second dentist for the restoration. In such a situation, the second dentist will have no clue regarding the implant in the patient's mouth. This situation is also expected when the clinician uses multiple implant brands and does not maintain proper implant records. When the patient reports after some years for a restoration, the clinician will be clueless. Eventually, the dentist either puts the implants to sleep and provides a denture prosthesis (fixed or removable) or uses nonoriginal abutments to restore the teeth, which may ultimately lead to various biological or mechanical complications misfit at a microscopic level.1 For an unknown reason, these cases are never cited in the literature, and therefore, the actual rate of implant failure due to orphan implants is unknown. The implant community is aware of such failures, but no definite solution has been established to date. Although some methods have been previously proposed, they are not feasible or universally applied. One simple and novel possible solution is the use of a radiopaque (biocompatible) substance that designates the implant manufacturer (using a specific sign). This would assist clinicians in identifying these orphan implants using conventional intraoral radiography and thereby reduce such implant failures. With advances in implant dentistry, another possible solution could be the “one abutment for all” concept, that is, one abutment that fits all implant systems. However, prospective studies should warrant the use of such abutments.
Thank you.
