Discomfort/pain due to periodontal and peri‐implant probing: Implant type and age

Aim There is evidence that patients experience more discomfort/pain after peri‐implant probing than periodontal probing. However, there are several plausible factors to additionally influence this observation: e.g., implant type, age, smoking. Thus, this study was designed to compare discomfort/pain after periodontal and peri‐implant probing in different implant types. Methods Two dentists recruited and examined 80 patients, each of them exhibiting a dental implant with a contralateral natural tooth. Only two types of implants were included. Periodontal and peri‐implant probing depths ( PPD ) and probing attachment level ( PAL ) were assessed. Whether implant or tooth were measured first was randomly assigned. Immediately after probing patients scored discomfort/pain using a visual analogue scale ( VAS ). Results Eighty patients (median; lower/upper quartile: age 57; 47.5/65.5 years; 40 females, 11 smokers) were examined. With the exception of PPD and PAL at the deepest site as well as mean PPD ( p  <   .05) clinical parameters ( PAL , bleeding on probing, suppuration) were well balanced between implants and teeth. Peri‐implant probing ( VAS : 9.0; 5.0/17.0) caused significantly ( p  =   .038) more discomfort/pain than periodontal probing (5.5; 2.0/13.5). This was confirmed by repeated measures analysis of variance adjusting for several factors ( p  =   .011). Conclusions Peri‐implant probing caused significantly more discomfort/pain than periodontal probing.