Dental implants - what exactly are they ?

Dental implants are artificial pillars inserted into the jawbone to support an artificial tooth or a dental prosthesis.

Worldwide, there are about 80 larger manufacturers producing around 2000 different types of dental implants. Thus, there is no "typical" dental implant. In the hands of an experienced implantologist, every scientifically and clinically developed and tested implant is useful - albeit not for every application. It is thus of decisive importance that the treating implantologist has the required experience to decide about which implant to use for your particular case.

Dental implants are usually made from pure titanium. Pure titanium is biologically neutral and does not provoke any allergies or rejections in the recipient body. It is thus ideally suited to adhere to the jaw. Ceramic implants used in former times showed similar results in adhering to the bone, the other properties of the material, especially its stability under pressure, however, were inferior. To support the process of adhesion, the surface oo the dental implants is keyed and drilled in special processes, so that the bone can adhere to and grow into the implant ad good as possible. The part of the implant however that protrudes the bone, is smoothed down as much as possible to prevent the adhesion or formation of germs or coatings.

There are two very common types of dental implants:

Cylindrical dental implants

These are - in form and function - very similar to a screw or dowel, anchored on the screw side to the bone and bearing an artificial tooth on its head, after having healed in. This type of implant is best suited to replace a single tooth in an environment with sufficient bone material. Using the screw form helps in acchieving instant stability despite small variations in the size of the drilled hole.

Butterfly dental implants.

In difference to the cylindrical dental implants, butterfly implants are not very deep, but rather wide. The implant consists of a small - only 1 mm thick - blade bearing the pillars that will later support the artificial teeth. The blade is pervaded by small holes, through which the bone will later grow, thus giving the implant maximum stability. Still, drilling a very exact bearing for the implant is essential for this type of implant, it should thus only be used by dentists with sufficient experience and high treatment numbers.
Butterfly implants are best used to support several artificial teeth on a single implant. They are also used in difficult cases, for instance when the jaw bone has retracte to a point that it is no longer deep enough to support a cylindrical implant.

It is of decisive importance that the treating dentist selects the type of implant best suited to your case, and that he also explains why he thinks the selected implant is the best for you. In all cases, the decision must be made based on the bone structure available. The implant must be made to suit the patient, not the other way around ! Sadly, many dentists practising in implantology did not receive sufficient education and use just one type of implants. This results in cases where dentists educated one-sided for the use of cylindrical implants insert implants that are much too large into a jawbone that is far too thin to support them. Often, they lack the courage to send a patient that cannot be treated with their own methods to a specialized institution. The results are suboptimal from a medical standpoint and they hinder the patients in their effort to acchieve long-term success with their dental implants.

Continue reading: Dental implants - the treatment