Is Dental Implant a New Practice in Dentistry?

From the earliest days, there is a need to replace dental elements that were eventually lost, whether due to periodontal disease, caries or trauma. The dental implant has always been and remains fundamental to restore the masticatory function or to meet the aesthetic need.

There are reports of these practices dating to before Christ. Ancient civilizations such as Egyptians, Phoenicians, Romans, and Greeks relinquished their knowledge and skill of craftsmen in trying to replace missing teeth, using materials they had access to such as pottery, metals, ivory, stones, shells, bones, etc.

The Egyptians

In ancient Egypt, human and animal teeth were used to replace the loss of noble teeth. These teeth were transplanted from slaves of the time or bought from individuals without resources (who sold them for this purpose) and also extracted from animals. Of course this was done precariously without the slightest hygiene, technique or any notion of bone fixation of the element.

The Incas and the dental implant

The Inca people made bone sculptures in the shape of the lost element and implanted it manually by hammering into the alveolus of the extracted or lost tooth. "Potions" and "rituals" were used to perform this practice in order to alleviate pain.

Archaeologists have found a jaw dating from 600 years BC belonging to the Inca people in the region of South America that contained dental implant carved in sea shells and fixed in the bone.

In some of these implanted elements, the presence of a dental calculus (tartar) was observed, which shows that they were not implanted after the individual's death, but were made in life and indicated to have remained in his mouth for a certain period, reestablishing aesthetics and function of the lost elements.

Replacing missing teeth has always been aimed at

Historically, it is noted the will and commitment of ancient peoples to replace the lost elements, seeking the greatest possible similarity with natural teeth, being this a great option where there is no need to compromise the adjacent teeth.

For this reason, for centuries, several attempts have been made to perform the dental implant , but this has not always been possible. Several materials were tested in order to obtain bone fixation of the implanted element. Screw models of various types of implants were tested, but the success rate was low.

Dental implant and bone integration

It was only in 1950 that the Swedish physician Per-Ingvar Branemark, in conducting a blood microcirculation study where titanium observation chambers were implanted in the rabbit tibia, noted that when the material was removed, it was adhered to the bone, which both integrated perfectly.

It was then that Branemark named this phenomenon of "bone integration" and from there began new research, studies, improvements and modifications for the use of long-term titanium implants in the mandible and maxilla, making implants in dogs initially , and in 1965 it was possible to perform the first threadable dental implant in a human patient.

Until today, this type of implant is used in the dental market, aiming at the total rehabilitation of the lost element, with the use of prosthetics of various materials such as, resin, porcelain, ceramics, etc.

The prostheses can be made on implants individually, that is, for the replacement of a single element, it can also replace the entire dental arch through the union of the prostheses with metallic structure, where some implants are used with a prosthesis attached to all elements of the arcade (the so-called protocol), or even partial replacement where the loss of some elements occurred.

All these useful and information content credit goes to Dr.Khan, the dentist in Des Plaines.