In the last two to three decades, scientific advances that brought us novel materials, surface morphologies, and also dental implant designs have been crucial towards achieving excellent survival and success rates of up to 10 years and more for dental implant treatment. At the same time, innovations and emerging technologies that help with osseointegration or bone grafting procedures during and following implant placement as well as assisting in the maintenance of the dental implants to monitor and detect per-implant bone loss are also relevant to successful treatment outcomes and the management of complications.
In the past five to ten years, advancements have been made in these fields, and some of these methodologies are now accepted and used worldwide in the context of oral implantology. The current feature topic series of articles in Forum Implantologicum focusses on selected emerging technologies for diagnostics, treatment and follow-up in implant dentistry. Thus, the use and potential impact of artificial intelligence (AI) for oral implantology will be discussed by Hung and coworkers in their article on “4P Medicine and AI in Implant Dentistry”. This article provides a summary of AI tools related to dental implant treatment across various stages, from diagnosis to treatment and beyond, and discusses their possible contribution to advancing a predictive, preventive, personalized, and participatory approach in implant patient management. Miron and colleagues present an overview of “Platelet-Rich Fibrin in Regenerative and Implant Dentistry”. In their article “Implementation of Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality in Implant Dentistry”, Joda and coworkers present an overview of the implementation of augmented, mixed and virtual reality in implant dentistry and dental education and provide recommendations related to the current and potential use of such devices. With regard to peri-implant diseases, the article “Use of Laser Therapy for Peri-implantitis” by Wang et al. comprises a comprehensive literature review of the current understanding of laser-assisted treatments for both non-surgical and surgical management of peri-implantitis. Finally, Wong and coworkers detail current concepts of 3D bioprinting and its use in oral and maxillofacial surgery including implant dentistry.
Obviously, this selection of emerging technologies and innovations in the field of oral implantology is far from complete and represents at least in part a personal selection. Nevertheless, all these articles nicely showcase the dynamic nature of oral implantology as a specialty that embraces technological innovations and breakthroughs to help increase long-term success for our patients and decrease morbidity in our surgical interventions.
I hope you will enjoy reading these contributions by our renowned authors as much as I have!
Michael M. Bornstein
Editor-in-Chief