Dental Implants — Strong Like Ox

Dental implants have become relatively commonplace and it’s easy to feel as if they’ve been around forever. Actually, implants have been used to replace missing teeth for only around 50 years. Well, that’s the modern version anyway. Dental implants of different forms have been around far longer than that.

Implants have history

Archeological digs have unearthed implanted seashells and ivory in the jawbone of ancient Mayans and Egyptians. While, we love to hit beach and search for seashells, Dr. Egger isn’t a big fan of using them to replace teeth in your mouth! But the idea of replacing a missing tooth something in its place is not new.

When you get to the modern titanium implant, its history can be traced back to 1952. Swedish orthopedic surgeon, Per-Ingvar Branemark, was studying bone healing and regeneration. Seeking to help mend a broken tibia in a rabbit, he inserted a titanium screw to help support the bone, but found that when he tried to remove the screw later the bone had fully grown around it and it couldn’t be removed. A decade of research followed and the modern dental implant debuted in 1965.

The best solution for a missing tooth

Dr. Egger believes dental implants are the best solution to replace a missing tooth, whether it is a tooth that is already gone, or a tooth that is so badly damaged or decayed that it requires extraction.

But we occasionally run into resistance when suggesting an implant to replace a missing tooth. Some people don’t think you need to replace a missing tooth or two. But that’s a bad idea. Why? If you don’t replace a missing tooth the adjacent teeth tend to spread out to fill the gap, kind of like people do in the bleachers at the Michigan/Michigan State football game when one person in the row leaves to go get a hot dog. This tooth migration creates problems with your overall bite and tooth alignment. So, we like our patients to replace that missing tooth with a dental implant.

Here are some other facts about dental implants:

• 25% of Americans over age 74 have lost all of their natural teeth.
• An estimated 69% of Americans age 35 to 44 have at least one missing tooth.Dental implants are basically a titanium screw that is set into the hole in the jawbone where the natural tooth root was anchored. The jawbone then grows around the implant in a process known as osseointegration.
• Once in place, implants function like a natural tooth, transferring the energy from biting and chewing down into the jawbone beneath the artificial tooth. This stimulation is responsible for the jawbone continually renewing itself, a process that prevents bone loss.
• Implants can also be used to anchor partial or complete dentures.
• Implants now have a 98% success rate.

If you’re missing a tooth, call Dr. Egger at 989-773-3560 and let’s talk about replacing it with a dental implant.