Getting Familiar With Dental Implants
An Introduction An artificial tooth root that dentists place in the bone to hold a bridge or a replacement tooth, Dental implants are mostly suggested to those who have a generally good oral health but have lost a tooth or multiple teeth due to a dental disease or injuries.
This method is better alternative to traditional bridgework as implants are more tooth-saving as, unlike bridgework, implants do not depend on neighboring teeth for support.
Dental implants are also better as they look and feel like natural teeth.
A good dental implant can even make you forget you ever lost a tooth.
A Brief History An ancient technique; civilizations, dating back more than 1,350 years, are known to be employing this implanting technique.
According to some archaeologists, Mayan civilization used titanium in endosseous implants - implants which are embedded into bone.
Archaeologists have found fragments of mandible in the excavations of Mayan burial sites.
In the 1950s, researchers at Cambridge University devised a method to construct a titanium chamber which was then places into the soft tissue of the ears of rabbits.
Two years later, P I Branemark, a Swedish orthopedic surgeon who was studying bone healing, used the titanium chamber method in the rabbit femur.
After several months of study, Branemark tried to retrieve the titanium chambers, but found that the chambers are not removable.
He noted that the bone had grown around titanium and adhered to the metal chamber.
Further studies in animal and human subjects confirmed that titanium has a unique property which makes it able to adhere to the bone structure.
Later, an Italian doctor Stefano Melchiade Tramonte started using titanium for dental restorations on many of his patients.
In 1966, he published the results of his clinical studies.
Meanwhile Branemark continued his research and published many studies on the use of titanium in dental implantations and eventually made a partnership with a Swedish defense company to focus on the manufacturing and marketing of titanium-made dental implants.
To this day, more than 7 million Branemark System dental implants have been placed.
Hundreds of other companies are also manufacturing dental implants using Branemark's methods.
This method is better alternative to traditional bridgework as implants are more tooth-saving as, unlike bridgework, implants do not depend on neighboring teeth for support.
Dental implants are also better as they look and feel like natural teeth.
A good dental implant can even make you forget you ever lost a tooth.
A Brief History An ancient technique; civilizations, dating back more than 1,350 years, are known to be employing this implanting technique.
According to some archaeologists, Mayan civilization used titanium in endosseous implants - implants which are embedded into bone.
Archaeologists have found fragments of mandible in the excavations of Mayan burial sites.
In the 1950s, researchers at Cambridge University devised a method to construct a titanium chamber which was then places into the soft tissue of the ears of rabbits.
Two years later, P I Branemark, a Swedish orthopedic surgeon who was studying bone healing, used the titanium chamber method in the rabbit femur.
After several months of study, Branemark tried to retrieve the titanium chambers, but found that the chambers are not removable.
He noted that the bone had grown around titanium and adhered to the metal chamber.
Further studies in animal and human subjects confirmed that titanium has a unique property which makes it able to adhere to the bone structure.
Later, an Italian doctor Stefano Melchiade Tramonte started using titanium for dental restorations on many of his patients.
In 1966, he published the results of his clinical studies.
Meanwhile Branemark continued his research and published many studies on the use of titanium in dental implantations and eventually made a partnership with a Swedish defense company to focus on the manufacturing and marketing of titanium-made dental implants.
To this day, more than 7 million Branemark System dental implants have been placed.
Hundreds of other companies are also manufacturing dental implants using Branemark's methods.
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