The History of Dental Implants

You may think that dental implants are a late 20th century discovery, but the earliest examples actually date back to 600 AD and the early Mayans tribes.

It wasn’t until 1950 that an experiment on rabbit’s ears resulted in the discovery of how bone seemed to meld with titanium. That discovery led to the first modern dental implant put in place by Dr. Leonard Linkow in 1952.

Taking these discoveries further, an Italian doctor, Stefano Tramonte, began using titanium for dental restorations. While many in the medical fields lobbied to focus titanium tests on hip and knee surgery, the mouth was far more accessible, so dental restructuring became the foundation for further study in the use of titanium as an implant medium.

Originally implants were introduced some weeks after the initial extraction, but recently there have been successes with implants placed directly into the extraction socket the same day the tooth is removed.

While titanium was the first medium successfully used for implants, dentists are now exploring the use of dioxide of zirconium. It is comparable to titanium, but it is brighter and more closely resembles the material of a natural tooth.

Dental implant surgery can be performed by any licensed dentist or oral surgeon (there is no specialty recognized by the ADA for this service). They are done under local or general anesthesia. The success rate for implants is about 95%.

Learn more about dental implants by reading the full article.