The history of dental implants
Believe it or not, the history of dental implants begins more than 1300 years ago with the ancient Mayans. Back in 600 AD, a young woman was missing some of her lower teeth. The same as any modern woman, she wanted her smile beautified. She received what is perhaps one of the world’s first dental implants. It was made from pieces of shell shaped to resemble teeth.
A 1930s archaeological dig led Dr. Wilson Popenoe in Honduras turned up the ancient dental implant. Similar discoveries were made when excavating ancient Egyptian artifacts. The Egyptian implants were made from shells and ivory. It was decades after these archaeological discoveries before the modern world caught up with the Mayans’ dental technology.
Twenty years after archaeologists discovered the mandible, a Swedish professor named Per-Ingvar Brånemark made the first big stride towards today’s dental implant procedures (known as oral implantology). In 1951, this orthopedic surgeon came across the concept quite by accident, but a fortuitous accident it was.
Professor Brånemark and his research team were studying microscopic aspects of the bones’ healing process in lab at the University of Lund. During one of their experiments, a titanium metal cylinder was screwed into the thighbone of an animal test subject.
As it would turn out, perhaps their most important discovery was not made until after the initial experiment was wrapped up. Upon further examination of the bone and metal cylinder, Professor Brånemark observed something surprising: the metal cylinder had fused with the bone.
It didn’t take long to realize the enormous potential of this technique. Dr. Brånemark began focusing on how he could use osseointegration, which is what he named the phenomenon, to help humans. During his studies, he found that titanium screws could serve as bone anchors for teeth.
Titanium, researchers came to realize, this was the only consistently successful material for dental implants. Before Dr. Brånemark’s work, other doctors had been toying with the idea of dental implants for years. A host of other metals, including silver and gold, had failed. Even human teeth (from donors) were tried.
Dr. Brånemark continued his studies for nearly three decades. His fellow scientists were skeptical, so he conducted numerous tests, including some on humans, before he published his findings in 1981.
After scientific scrutiny of the paper, medical confidence in the procedure grew. Guidelines for implantology were set during the Toronto Conference in Clinical Dentistry in 1982. The public began to accept that dental implants were safe. The standardization of the process during the conference proved to be the jumpstart the dental implant needed.
Commercial oral implantology grew during the 1980s. Osseointegration was being used to permanently affix bridges and individual teeth into patients’ mouths. The implants proved to be successful in over 90% of the cases. The modern dental implant had arrived!
Over the next two decades, technology has only continued to improve the process. For instance, slight modifications to the titanium proved to increase healing time. As time goes by and as the practice of dentistry advances, patients will continue to see dental implants becoming quicker, easier, and less painful.
