The clinical efficacy of powder air-polishing in the non-surgical treatment of peri-implant diseases: A systematic review and meta-analysis

Peri-implant diseases, characterized by inflammatory conditions affecting peri-implant tissues, encompass peri-implant mucositis and peri-implantitis. Peri-implant mucositis is an inflammatory lesion limited to the mucosa around an implant, while peri-implantitis extends from the mucosa to the supporting bone, causing a loss of osseointegration. For non-surgical treatments, we tested the null hypothesis that the presence or absence of air-polishing made no difference. The study focused on randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing air-polishing with mechanical or ultrasonic debridement, evaluating outcomes such as bleeding on probing (BOP), probing depth (PD), plaque index/plaque score (PI/PS), clinical attachment level (CAL), bone loss, and mucosal recession (MR). Two independent reviewers conducted data extraction and quality assessments, considering short-term (<6 months) and long-term (≥6 months) follow-up periods. After screening, ten articles were included in the meta-analysis. In nonsurgical peri-implant disease management, air-polishing moderately mitigated short-term PI/PS for peri-implant mucositis and showed a similar improvement in long-term BOP and bone loss for peri-implantitis compared to the control group. The Egger test found no evidence of publication bias except for the long-term PI/PS of peri-implant mucositis. Leave-one-out analysis confirmed the stability of the results. The findings highlight the need for future research with longer-term follow-up and high-quality, multi-center, large-sample RCTs.