Dental implants that achieve “osseointegration” (rigid osseous fixation) are increasingly important for orthodontic anchorage and replacement of missing teeth. The critical determinant of endosseous implant performance is the response of the bone interface and its supporting bone to functional and therapeutic loads. Despite its importance for predicting the clinical performance of implanted devices, little is known about the mechanical properties of bone supporting dental implants. As presently defined, the mechanism of osseointegration is a very high rate of bone remodeling within about 1 mm of the implant surface. Since the interfacial bone remodels so rapidly (300–500%/yr), it never completes secondary mineralization. This results in a relatively compliant layer of incompletely mineralized lamellar bone that separates the implant from fully mineralized bone. Current evidence suggests this is a physiologic compensating mechanism for maintaining a stiff, inert metallic device in living bone. The new micromechanical methods of nanoindentation and backscatter emission (BSE) offer considerable promise for defining the material properties of the dynamic bone-implant interface. These data are essential to advancing the technology of endosseous implant anchorage for use in orthodontics and dentofacial orthopedics.