Profilaxis versus tratamiento antimicrobiano en pacientes sometidos a implantes orales

introduction: there is persistent controversy over the superiority of antibiotic prophylaxis versus antimicrobial therapy in avoiding postoperative infection following dental implants. objective: to compare the use of antibiotic prophylaxis versus antimicrobial therapy in the control of infection in patients undergoing dental implant surgery. method: the sample consisted of thirty patients, ages between 30 and 70 years that were randomly divided into two groups, 15 patients each. the average age in the prophylaxis group was 52 years and 59 in the therapy group, and the average was 2 implants placed per patient. one group received prophylaxis with amoxicillin 2 g 30 minutes before surgery and the other group received therapy with amoxicillin 500 mg capsules every 8 hours for 7 days. postoperative clinical control of signs of infection -pain, redness, swelling, and oozing- was registered at 3, 8 and 15 days. the count of leukocytes, neutrophiles and lymphocytes was determined at one week following the procedure. results: the number of signs of infection were lower in the prophylaxis group than in the therapy group. the prophylaxis group exhibited lesser number of signs and symptoms of infection (6.7% versus 13.3%), although not reaching statistical significance. the average number of leukocytes, lymphocytes and neutrophils in the blood counts were within normal range in both groups, with no statistical difference between the two groups (p = 0.79, p = 0.91, p = 0.82, respectively). conclusions: the lesser number of signs of infection confirms recently reported results that support the superiority of antibiotic prophylaxis over antibiotic therapy in the prevention of infection following dental implants.