Dental implants and its use in children: A narrative review

Among the various congenital dental abnormalities in children, loss of tooth due to trauma and hypodontia are few that are most prevalent. A wide range of treatment modalities are available for these abnormalities, however, removable prosthesis is the most common treatment option to be used, but a pitfall of this method is that it may increase the residual alveolar bone resorption and other problems related to periodontal support of the remaining teeth. Dental implants, another treatment modality, are generally advocated in adults or young patients that are beyond their craniofacial growth potential. This comprehensive review will discuss the use of dental implants in normal growing patients and some special scenarios including orthodontic consideration and mini-implant use in pediatric population. This review sorted the literature in main themes of influence of growth on the usage of dental implants in children; use of dental implants in children suffering from ectodermal dysplasia; use of dental implants in traumatic dental injuries sustained in children; and for orthodontics intervention during childhood. The literature was searched using databases such as PubMed, Scopus, MEDLINE, and Google. The titles and abstracts were screened, and full text was retrieved for publications that studied the use of dental implants in children in any form of intervention. The results indicated that scientific studies have documented high functional and esthetic results in cases of prosthetic treatments on implants, min-implants in children. However, the use of implants in children is high restricted to anterior mandibular region, with most clinicians opting for growth completion before implant placements. The establishment of the mastication, speech function, and normal appearance is highly crucial for growth of the jaws and facial bones. However, isolated use of mini-implants in growing children has definitely broaden the idea of the use of implant modification in children, yet to achieve maturation.