A Study of Antidepressants & Implant Failure | iSmile

The results of an 8-month dental implant study, correlating dental implant failure with the use of antidepressants, will be presented at the March, 2016 meeting of the American Association for Dental research. Antidepressants have dramatically improved the quality of many lives. However, there’s a surprising side effect that most people don’t know about: a connection between implant failure and antidepressants.

Why Antidepressants Might Negatively Impact Dental Implants 

Because antidepressants have been shown to affect the metabolism of bone tissue–see this 2007 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine showing that antidepressants sped up the loss of bone tissue in older women–researchers at the University at Buffalo School of Dental Medicine wanted to gauge the strength of that association by studying patients that used antidepressants and received dental implants.

The Study 

Researchers reviewed the dental clinic charts of adult patients that received dental implants between January and August of 2014, searching for those who reported taking one or more antidepressants during their dental treatment period. These patients were matched with a “control group” of implant patients with no history of antidepressant use.

Of the 74 patients in the study, 8 experienced implant failure. Of those, 6 were taking antidepressants at the time of dental treatment and 2 were not. Therefore, the odds of implant failure for patients taking antidepressants were 4 times higher than that of patients not taking antidepressants. Further, each year of antidepressant use doubled the odds of implant failure.

What This Study Means to Our NYC Dental Patients 

Although researchers concluded that antidepressant usage might be associated with dental implant failure, don’t stop taking important medications based on this small group of individuals. More research is on the horizon to confirm that the results of this small study are confirmed with a larger population of patients.