History of Dental Implants
Hillsboro, OR
 Dental implants are the very best way to replace your teeth permanently today. Lots of very interesting and impressive advances in dentistry have lead to what we now know as the modern day dental implant. Modern dental implants are quite sophisticated and offer much freedom to our patients. There is a tendency to think of dental implants only as something that appeared very recently when in fact, dental implants have a long history of use in different civilizations throughout the world.
Here at Century Dental, we believe that all of our patients deserve to be educated on what goes on in their mouth. Understanding how to prevent oral maladies starts with understanding what causes them.
Dental Implants Date Back Quite a Ways
Dental implants have been around for many hundreds of years according to the archeological record. The first known dental implant evidence dates back to roughly 4000 years ago when the ancient Chinese were carving bamboo pegs to replace missing teeth.
At about 3000 years ago there is evidence that an Egyptian kind had a copper tooth placed into his jaw. There is a chance that the copper tooth was placed after his death but this is the first example of metal being used to replace a tooth.
The remains of a 2000-year-old Celtic man was found with a false iron tooth, but many believe that it was placed after his death.
In 1931 some archaeologists found Mayan remains that dated back to 600 AD who had carved seashells that were meant to replace missing teeth. The interesting thing about these seashell teeth is that the bone in the jaw healed around them in the process known as osseointegration. This is notable because today’s dental implants rely heavily on the healing process of the bone and the implant. Osseointegrations gives dental implants the ability to act as functional teeth for a very long time.
The Birth of Modern Dental Implants
Per-Ingvar Brånemark is the father of the modern-day dental implant. He was a Swedish orthopedic surgeon who made the implant discovery in the mid-1960’s while he was researching how bones in the human body healed. He learned that titanium was the ideal implant material because it was strong and long-lasting, but most importantly, it was a biocompatible material that the human body would not reject. Instead of rejecting it, the human body would heal around titanium in the process we know as osseointegration.
How They are Implemented Today
Today, we have the process of placing dental implants down to an exact science. Dental implants can be used to permanently replace a single missing tooth, multiple consecutive missing teeth, even a full arch of missing teeth. Dental implants do a lot to restore the health of the mouth of a patient who has lost their teeth and even experienced significant bone loss in the jaw. Dental implants restore the patient’s ability to eat and speak as they did before they lost their teeth. Implants even offer prosthetic teeth that mimic the look and feel of real teeth so well that no one will be able to tell they aren’t your natural teeth!
For more information or to find out if dental implants are right for you, give Century Dental a call today at (971) 708-1608. |
