Dental Implants
Dental implants are actually replacements of the ROOT portion of the tooth. If you lose a tooth, implants are the best way to replace that tooth. Prior to 30 years ago, bridges where the latest technology when it came to tooth replacement. When doing a bridge, the dentist needs to cut into the adjacent teeth.
With implants single teeth can be replaced without cutting into or touching the adjacent teeth.
The implant is put in where the root of the tooth originally was. Placing an implant involves drilling into the jawbone but is not really very complicated.
Implants were introduced into North America in 1981. Today, we can remove the tooth, place the implant and the ceramic replacement tooth (called a ‘restoration”) in one day. The patient will have general soreness for a few days, and some people even go back to work the following day.
A typical implant consists of a titanium screw (resembling a tooth root) with a roughened or smooth surface. The majority of dental implants are made out of commercially pure titanium, which is available in 4 grades depending upon the amount of carbon and iron contained.
However, recently grade 5 titanium has increased in use. Grade 5 titanium, or Titanium 6AL-4V, (signifying the Titanium alloy containing 6% Aluminium and 4% Vanadium alloy) is believed to offer similar osseointegration (osseo meaning ‘bone’) levels as commercially pure titanium. Ti-6Al-4V alloy offers better tensile strength and fracture resistance.
But, today most implants are still made out of commercially pure titanium (grades 1 to 4)
A titanium screw is placed into the jawbone to support restorations (ceramics that resemble a tooth or group of teeth) to replace teeth that have been extracted or are missing.
The look of the implanted tooth can be matched to the look of your other teeth. The high quality of the ceramics used today allow an almost perfect appearance whereas in the past the implant would show through the tooth and one would have a gray line showing through.
Today, that telltale gray line doesn’t happen. Thanks to the advances in technology, we can mimic the look and feel of the adjacent teeth quite well.
Dental implants can be used to support a number of dental prostheses, including crowns, implant-supported bridges, or dentures. They can also be used as anchorage for orthodontic tooth movement.
Implants are really about functionality. As long as there is sufficient bone and good soft tissue, the implant should last a lifetime.
HISTORY OF IMPLANTS:
Implants date as far back as about 600 AD as has been found through research into the Mayan civilization. In 1931, archaeologists excavating Mayan burial sites in Honduras found a fragment of what is considered to be a mandible of a woman in her twenties. This mandible had three tooth-shaped pieces of shell placed into the sockets of three missing lower incisor teeth.
Archaeologists originally considered these implants to have been place after the woman’s death, however, in 1970, Brazilian dental academic, Professor Amadeo Bobbio concluded the implants to have been placed in her mouth while she was living. This was concluded after intense study of the mandilble and taking a series of radiographs. The compact bone formation around two of the implants led him to this conclusion.