Implant failures associated with asymptomatic endodontically treated teeth

Background. Endosseous root-formed implants occasionally fail to osseointeg rate. Causes of failure include infection, over-heating of the bone, habitu al smoking, systemic disease, transmucosal overloading, excessive surgical trauma and implant placement adjacent to teeth demonstrating periapical pat hology. Case Description. In this article, the authors present another possible cau se of implant failure. The cases of four patients who received endosseous r oot-formed implants are discussed. Each patient demonstrated signs of infec tion after initial implant placement. The common factor in each failing imp lant was its placement adjacent to an asymptomatic endodonically treated to oth with no clinical or radiographic evidence of pathology. Clinical Implications. These patients demonstrate the importance of evaluat ing and possibly retreating or extracting adjacent endodontically treated t eeth before placing implants.