Dental implants are becoming the restoration of choice to replace missing teeth. But why have they become so popular? Are they reliable? Who is a good candidate for dental implants? Here is everything you need to know about dental implants.
What are dental implants made of?
For a thousand years, people have tried replacing missing teeth with things like shells, stone carvings, animal bones, and metal screws. Unfortunately, most substances are seen as foreign by the bodyās immune system.
In the middle of the twentieth century, certain metals were discovered that the body did not reject. Dental implants made from these metals were held in place by screws or wedging into slots in the bone. While they worked better, these implants often became loose or dislodged.
In 1952, a Swedish doctor named P.I. BrƄnemark placed titanium posts in bone. This metal actually fused to the bone when it healed.
He called this process osseointegration. He went on to create the modern dental implant, with titanium becoming the standard material used.