Implant Success Criteria
A defined set of clinical and radiographic benchmarks — such as absence of pain, mobility, infection, and acceptable crestal bone loss — used to determine whether an implant is classified as successful rather than merely surviving.
Full Definition
Implant success criteria are the specific, measurable parameters by which an implant is judged to be performing optimally, as distinct from implant survival, which requires only that the implant remains in situ. Widely cited frameworks include those proposed by Albrektsson et al. (1986) and Buser et al. These criteria typically include: no persistent pain or dysaesthesia, no mobility, no peri-implant infection with suppuration, no continuous radiolucency, and crestal bone loss of no more than 0.2 mm annually after the first year of loading. Editors must distinguish 'success criteria' (performance thresholds) from 'survival rate' (a simple persistence statistic). Plural form is always 'criteria'; the singular 'criterion' should be used when referring to a single benchmark.
Usage
Usage note: 'Criteria' is always plural; use 'criterion' for a single parameter. Distinguish rigorously from 'survival rate' in outcome reporting.
In Context
- "All 42 implants met the implant success criteria defined by Albrektsson et al. at the five-year recall examination." — Clinical research outcomes section
- "The author conflates 'survival' with 'success'; the editor should insert a note that survival rate and implant success criteria yield different conclusions from the same dataset." — Peer-review annotation