New trends in implant dentistry: Toward a super-aging society

Abstract

The success rate of dental implant treatment as an option for prosthodontic management has been high over a long period. Dental implants have been accepted as a highly predictable treatment modality. On the other hand, the global population of individuals aged ≥65 years in 2019 was 703 million according to the World Health Organization (WHO) World Report on World Population Ageing 2019, but it is expected to increase about 2-fold (1.5 billion) in 2050. In addition, it is expected that one in six people in the world will be ≥65 years old in 2050. In particular, Japan has the largest population of older individuals in the world and is expected to maintain this lead in the world until 2050. Therefore, we must consider how to achieve successful implant treatment and maintain implant function in a super-aging society.Many older patients have systemic diseases, such as diabetes mellitus, hypertension, and osteoporosis, necessitating the use of several drugs. Therefore, minimally invasive treatment procedures, such as graftless solutions, flapless surgery, immediate loading, and short, narrow, and angulated implants, are suggested for dental treatment. Furthermore, minimizing the number of hospital visits using digital workflow and accomplishing treatment as simply as possible is necessary [1,2]. In addition, as a minimally invasive treatment that exhibits potent effects despite a low cost, implant overdenture, is very effective for fully edentulous patients [3][4][5].