Which air polishing powders are recommended around dental implants?

Based on the indexed literature, erythritol and glycine are the two powders most investigated and discussed for use around dental implants.

Erythritol air polishing has shown promising results for professional oral hygiene at implant-supported restorations, appearing significantly more effective in reducing biofilm compared to other treatments without causing significant damage to implant surfaces or peri-implant tissues ^[1]. It is considered a promising treatment method for peri-implant disease management ^[2]. However, in a randomized controlled trial of surgical peri-implantitis treatment, erythritol air polishing was not more effective than saline irrigation for clinical, radiographic, or microbiological outcomes, and both therapies resulted in low overall treatment success ^[3]. In non-surgical peri-implantitis treatment, erythritol air polishing has also been investigated as an alternative to glycine, though complete disease resolution remains difficult to achieve with non-surgical approaches ^[2].

Glycine powder air polishing, when combined with mechanical submucosal debridement, produced significantly greater reductions in bleeding index and suppuration on probing compared to mechanical debridement alone, particularly for peri-implant mucositis, though PPD reductions were comparable between groups ^[4]. For treating peri-implant mucositis more broadly, air polishing showed effects comparable to ultrasonic scaling in reducing bleeding on probing and probing pocket depth ^[5].

Overall, neither powder has been shown to produce clearly superior clinical outcomes over alternative modalities, and the literature does not designate one powder as definitively preferred over the other ^[5][2].