It has been many years since Dr. Branemark discovered dental implants by studying the blood circulation in a rabbit’s femur. The discovery of osseointegration was completely random, because it occurred looking that the titanium screws used to get attached to the devices to study the circulation were integrated into the bone, and they were really hard to remove. Branemark (a Swedish orthopedic surgeon) and her team taking base from this discovery developed a type of dental implant using screws made of pure titanium, and its success revolutionized dentistry.
The dental implant is an artificial substitute for the root of a lost tooth, being today a common practice in dental surgeries. As in everything, there are implants of different qualities and prices, but in every country dental implants must comply with the rules and standards that the health authorities certify.
The leading countries in implantology demand that before the procedure start the patient must be evaluated and comply with certain prerequisites. To place dental implants it is necessary a minimum alveolar bone that features a certain height and width. In clinical cases where the amount of bone is insufficient for an implant placement, different surgical techniques for their solution are needed such as bone implants or the elevation of the maxillary sinus.
However, implantology has evolved and today we have a variety of sizes and designs for implants that prevent previous surgeries for bone implantation, greatly facilitating the surgical phase and the post operatory phase for patients, because it’s shorter. Also, the implants are integrated better with natural bone that has not been tampered of grafted than in artificial bone.
Another breakthrough is the post extraction implant. When we need to extract a tooth, today we plan to do in the extraction of the tooth at the same time that we can place the implant. We take the alveoli where the tooth was, so that post-operatory care is almost nonexistent and implant integration is almost assured.
Summarizing: the best choice for the replacement of teeth is the placement of titanium implants, with a success rate of 98% and with minimally invasive techniques and almost no post-operatory care or discomfort.
With all these developments and some more next to arrive, the direction and the professionals in the Martinez Cortina Clinic and La Felguera, wish you happy and smiling holidays.
