A Little History...

	Ancient history of dental implants dates back to Egyptian times when sea shells were literally hammered into the jaw to replace missing teeth. Believe it or not, scientists feel that these shells may have actually worked! Slots were made into the bone and the shells were pounded in like little wedges. Without Novocain!
Ancient Egyptian Shell Implant

	By modern standards, the history of implants, as they are known today, goes back some 35 to 40 years. There were two major and diverse schools of thought. In America, blade-shaped implants were placed into the bone, then posts were attached to the blade with bridgework affixed on the posts later.
Original Blade-Type Implant

A second type of implant was called a subperiosteal framework. These frameworks were custom cast to sit on the jawbone underneath the gum membrane. These types proved to be somewhat unsuccessful and, more importantly, they caused damage when they needed to be removed. Infection was common and bone grafting technology was in its infancy so the damage that was done would often be irreversible.
	Subperiosteal Frame

In 1952, in a modestly appointed laboratory in the university town of Lund, Sweden, Professor Per-Ingvar Brånemark had a lucky accident -- what most scientists call serendipity. Much to his irritation, Dr. Brånemark discovered that it was impossible to recover any of the bone-anchored titanium microscopes he was using in his research. The titanium had apparently bonded irreversibly to living bone tissue, an observation which contradicted contemporary scientific theory.

His curiosity aroused, Dr. Brånemark subsequently demonstrated that -- under carefully controlled conditions -- titanium could be structurally integrated into living bone with a very high degree of predictability and, without long-term soft tissue inflammation or ultimate fixture rejection. Brånemark named the phenomenon osseointegration. The first practical application of osseointegration was the implantation of new titanium roots in an edentulous patient in 1965. More than thirty years later, the non-removable teeth attached to these roots are still functioning perfectly.

Around 1980, Brånemark brought his research to the U.S. which was an overwhelming improvement to American methods. In turn, American technology quickly adopted these principles. The design elements of root-form implants has been refined to an enormous extent including improvements in surface treatments and thread designs.

At this time, well over a half million dental implants are being surgically placed annually. Properly planned and executed, success rates are well over 90 percent. And yet, as rapidly as this field of dentistry is growing, the majority of potential dental implant patients is unaware that this treatment exists.