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To date, the term peri-implantitis has been mostly associated with bacterial or foreign body reaction as primary factors of its development. Because of this, researchers' and clinicians' attention regarding treatment possibilities were directed into the solutions on the basis of surface modifications, debridement, and antibiotics. After years of clinical observations and poor results in treatment of peri-implantitis, a new proposal of this condition is presented, shifting our way of thinking regarding bone and implant interactions. In the second part of the paper presenting a new definition of peri-implantitis, we focused on a biological explanation of the bone behavior at the bone–implant interface. The main conclusion is that PI is not an "infectious disease", but rather the result of natural changes of the bone's morphology in response to implant such as a decrease in convexity of the outer surface of the bone and subsequently a decrease in concavity of the inner bone. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scientists have been speculating for three decades about the reasons for the occurrence of peri-implantitis around dental implants. Many theories have been proposed since the beginning of 1990. Since then, the dental profession has been exposed to a vast number of peri-implantitis cases, whereas the "disease" had been unknown before this time. However, the situation has not improved because we focus more on how to treat the problem instead of trying to understand it completely. The aim of this paper is to present a purely bone-based explanation for the beginning of the "bone loss" process around already "osseointegrated" implants. Conclusion: There are a number of possible chain reactions of physiological bone response to dental implants which may explain the occurrence of peri-implantitis. Bacteria and "immunological reactions" may not be the main causes of this disease. In the first part, the authors present the principles of bone biology and physiology based on the theories of Donath, Jansen and Frost and transfer them to the field of implantology. They describe the stages of "osseointegration", explaining the subsequent changes in the bone at the implant–bone interface. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]