Does alcohol consumption protect against late dental implant failures?

Purpose: Social factors have been implicated in the development of peri-implant pathologies, including implant failure. This study aims to investigate whether alcohol consumption affects late dental implant failures. Methods: A retrospective cohort study evaluated implants placed between 2006 and 2012 at the Philadelphia Veterans Affairs Medical Center. The primary predictor variable was alcohol consumption, measured as nonconsumption and mild, moderate, and heavy consumption. The primary outcome variable was late dental implant failure. Univariate, bivariate, and multivariate statistics were applied, with P <.05 used to define statistical significance. Results: Our cohort consisted of 103 patients and 295 implants with a 5-year minimum follow-up. Most patients were male (93%) with an average age of 60 at the time of implant placement. Late implant failure was associated with 30 implants. Compared to nonconsumption, mild consumption was associated with a 75% decrease in late implant failure (P =.0494), moderate consumption was associated with a 60% decrease (P =.3826), and heavy consumption was associated with a 200% increase (P <.1782). Compared to mild consumption, heavy consumption was associated with an 847% increase in late failure (P =.0135). Conclusions: Results from this retrospective cohort analysis suggest that mild alcohol consumption is associated with a decrease in late dental implant failures.