With advances in restorative dentistry alongside preventive regimens, members of our ageing population are keeping their teeth. One such advance is dental implants which, with increasing public awareness and demand, are becoming a common clinical finding in elderly patients. This could be an ever-increasing issue for dental teams, in particular community dental services, which are commonly called upon to manage geriatric patients with additional needs. This case report explores an example of an implant-related complication in a 92-year-old woman with vascular dementia, where a right mandibular dental implant had perforated the oral mucosa and the patient's skin to present extra-orally. Management was complicated by severe frailty and poor compliance. CPD/Clinical Relevance: The case highlights the nature of potential complications that are going to become more common in relation to complex restorative dentistry, such as implants and implant-retained prosthesis, and the challenges this will pose to general dental practitioners and community dental services undertaking domiciliary care.
Agar et al. (Sat,) studied this question.