Patients’ perceptions of implant placement surgery, the postsurgical healing and the immediate fixed and removable implant retained restoration; a qualitative study

Objectives: this study aimed to explore patients’ thoughts of, feelings about, and experiences of, surgical implant placement; the post-surgical healing stage and the immediate post-surgical temporary implant retained restoration (fixed and removable).

Methods: A qualitative study design was chosen and 38 semi-structured telephone and face-to-face interviews were conducted with 34 patients at different stages of implant treatment (4 patients were interviewed twice after they moved to a subsequent stage). The interviews were transcribed verbatim; the data collection and coding process followed the principles of thematic analysis, which was facilitated through the use of NVivo 10.

Results: Patients anticipated that surgery would be painful and unpleasant but were prepared to accept this temporary discomfort for the expected benefits of implant treatment. However, a key finding was that patients felt they had overestimated the trauma of surgery but underestimated the discomfort and difficulties of the healing phase. A number of difficulties were also identified with the temporary restoration phase immediately following implant surgery.

Conclusion: Existing research has tended to focus on the longer term benefits of dental implant treatment. This qualitative study has investigated in depth patients’ perceptions of dental implant surgery, including their experiences related to sedation, and of immediate implant retained restoration. While patients felt their concerns were overestimated in relation to the implant surgery, they experienced struggles related to the healing phase. Recommendations are made for relatively small changes in care provision which might improve the overall patient experience. The partially dentate patients experienced advantages of temporary implant retained restoration more quickly than patients with overdenture.