While information on the prevalence of peri‐implantitis is available, data describing onset and progression of the disease are limited.

A 9‐year follow‐up examination of 596 randomly selected implant‐carrying individuals identified 62 patients with moderate/severe peri‐implantitis. Longitudinal assessments of peri‐implant marginal bone levels were used to construct a statistical model with bone loss as the dependent variable. A multilevel growth model estimated the pattern of bone loss for each implant/patient. Onset of peri‐implantitis was determined by evaluating the cumulative percentage of implants/patients presenting with estimated bone loss at each year following prosthesis delivery.

The analysis showed a non‐linear, accelerating pattern of bone loss at the 105 affected implants. The onset of peri‐implantitis occurred early, and 52% and 66% of implants presented with bone loss of >0.5 mm at years 2 and 3 respectively. A total of 70% and 81% of subjects presented with ≥1 implants with bone loss of >0.5 mm at years 2 and 3 respectively.

It is suggested that peri‐implantitis progresses in a non‐linear, accelerating pattern and that, for the majority of cases, the onset occurs within 3 years of function.