Efficacy of preoperative antibiotics in prevention of dental implant failure: a Meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials

Background Dental implants are commonly used for replacement of missing teeth. Despite the published data highlighting the high success rate of dental implants, failures do occur. Some of these failures are believed to be a result of bacterial contamination at the site of implant insertion. Various antibiotic regimens have already been suggested to prevent failure due to infection. Objective This meta-analysis aims to examine the efficacy of preoperative antibiotics in prevention of dental implant failure secondary to infections. Methodology An exhaustive search was conducted on electronic database including PubMed Medline, Google Scholar, Scopus, and Cochrane on July 15, 2019. All the randomized controlled trials (RCT) comparing preoperative antibiotics with no antibiotics/placebo in dental implants were included in the study. The primary outcome for assessment was implant failure. A random effect meta-analysis was conducted for risk ratios of dichotomous data. Results A total 8544 abstracts were screened following which 16 full text articles were reviewed and 5 RCTs were included in the analysis. Meta-analysis results indicated that the preoperative antibiotics resulted in statistically significantly lower number of implant failures. Conclusion Preoperative antibiotics effectively reduce the implant failure rate. However, it is recommended to conduct large-scale RCT to determine the efficacy of preoperative antibiotics in dental implants.