Assessing Patients' Awareness and Knowledge of Suggested Cleaning Procedures for Implant Prosthetic Restorations

Objectives:

This study was conducted to evaluate the attitudes and knowledge of

patients attending Ataturk University Faculty of Dentistry

Prosthodontics Clinic regarding their preferences for providing

professional implant care and awareness of implant-specific oral hygiene

methods.

Material and Methods:

A questionnaire was administered to 130 randomly selected patients with

fixed or removable prosthetic restorations on implants attending the

Prosthodontics Clinic of Ataturk University Faculty of Dentistry.

Results: It was found that patients answered yes to the questions of

flossing (27.7%), use of interface brush (21.5%), use of mouth shower

(7.7%), and use of mouthwash (80.8%) among the preferred methods for

cleaning implant prosthetic restorations. When the rates of mouth shower

use were analyzed in terms of the relationship between education and

the use of mouth shower, a statistically significant relationship was

found (P < 0.001).

Conclusion:

Dentists play a major role in explaining and raising awareness of their

patients about the cleaning of implant prostheses and home care

recommendations. The general awareness tendency of patients at this

point is low. This study proved that patients need to know how to take

care of and clean their dentures. Our study's hypothesis, which was

founded on our clinical findings prior to the investigation, suggested

that there might be variations in how implant-retained prosthetic

restorations are cleaned depending on the age and educational level of

the patient.