Dental implants and evolving discipline.

Abstract

ic s. co m Modern dental implantology begins with the work of Professor Per-Ingvar Branemark (1929-2014) at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, and Professor Andre Schroeder (1918-2004) at the University of Bern, Switzerland. Professor Branemark was the first to observe that titanium had the unique property of developing a permanent attachment to bone, which he termed “osseointegration.” From this observation, he then had the further understanding that titanium could be utilized as a material for permanent dental implants. At the Toronto Conference on Osseointegration in Clinical Dentistry in 1982, Professor Branemark gave his landmark presentation that convinced dentists that a new era had dawned for dental implants, which became rapidly adopted as a new method of root form screws. Many other individuals contributed further to the development of modern dental implants, including Professor Andre Schroeder, who published in 1976 early histological evidence of dental implant osseointegration and collaborated with Dr Fritz Straumann of Waldenburg, Switzerland to develop improved dental implant designs. Continued scientific research into the basic science of bone biology, dental implant metal surfaces, and metallurgy has allowed new dental implant developments. Building on the refinements of dental implants themselves