Luke Lehrer – Flickr Commons

Dental tourists often travel to Costa Rica for affordable restoration procedures that involve implantation, a popular treatment that rarely presents complications. Although modern implantation techniques make this procedure minimally invasive, there is always a potential risk of infection that dental professionals and patients must consider.

At the New Smile Dental Group, a specialty clinic that caters to dental tourists in Costa Rica, the doctors prefer to perform flapless procedures for the purpose of reducing the risk of infection.

Gum tissue infections caused by bacteria are the main reasons patients may seek to replace their dental implants. Such infections are extremely rare in the dentist chair because the dental implant placement is carefully performed in a sterile field. Bacterial infections of dental implants, however, may occur months or even years after the procedure is performed.

In 2015, German medical researchers at Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft released details about their work towards developing a solution to significantly reduce the risk of dental implant infections. As reported by Science Daily:

Bacterial infection of a dental implant is a dreaded complication, as it carries with it a high risk of jawbone degeneration. Implanting an artificial dental root sets off a race between infectious pathogens and the body’s own cellular defenses.

German researchers are working on DentaPlas, a new kind of coating for dental implant materials that combines physical and chemical properties to attract moisture and release anti-microbial elements.

DentaPlas was introduced at a trade conference in Dusseldorf in late 2015, and it attracted interest among researchers and potential distributors.

Until DentaPlas is available in Costa Rica, the dental professionals at the New Smile Dental Group recommend that patients visit their dental health practitioners at home twice a year to assess the conditions of their implants and to get thorough cleanings that help keep infections at bay.