Dental Implants: How We Got Here

Today, you can replace missing teeth with modern titanium dental implants in a process that takes — from start to finish — as little as six to nine months. At the end of that process, you’ll have a set of new teeth and roots that can reasonably be expected to last a lifetime. 

The development of implant materials, technologies and procedures to get to the point of this months-long solution for tooth loss, though, has taken millennia — yes, literally thousands of years — to come to fruition. At Chancellor Dental, we get lots of questions about dental implants and their advantages. True, not many of those questions are about the dusty days of implant innovation millennia ago, but just in case you’re curious, here’s an outline of the history of dental implants throughout time. 

4,000 years ago

Beginning approximately 4,000 years ago, people in China first began using a primitive form of dental implants by inserting small plugs made of bamboo into gaps in their jaws. Those bamboo plugs were intended, researchers believe, to act as roots to which some form or primitive artificial tooth might be attached. 

2,000 years ago

Moving from China 4,000 years ago to Egypt 2,000 years ago, different versions of dental implants have been found in remains in Egypt dating from two millennia in the past. Those remains in Egypt didn’t have bamboo plugs like the ones used in China, but roots made out of precious metals. 

Approximately 600 AD (Practically yesterday!)

The development of implants using bamboo (in China) and precious metals (in Egypt) didn’t stop there. By approximately 600 AD, Mayan peoples had developed a form of dental implants that didn’t just replace the appearance of missing teeth but actually restored some dental function, too. Mayan dental implants and artificial teeth from roughly 1,400 years ago were made from jade, seashells and stones. An exploration of Mayan remains actually found that some of those products were covered by the development of some growth of new bone tissue. 

1913

If we can call a product that was developed in 1913 “modern”, the first “modern” dental implants saw the light of day roughly 1,300 years later. Dental implants introduced in 1913 were made from an alloy that contained platinum and iridium. This first form of modern dental implant was called The Greenfield Basket and — essentially and in a way that would develop further in just a few decades — showed some ability to bond to natural bone tissue. 

1952

Dental implants took a further critical leap forward during research on rabbits at Lund University in 1952.Surgeon Per-Ingvar Branemark was studying blood flow in rabbit bones using a titanium implant chamber. Branemark didn’t intend for the implant to remain in place but found, when he tried to remove it, that it had fused with the rabbits’ bones. With that, Branemark had introduced the world to osseointegration. Osseointegration is the key feature and advantage of dental implants compared to, for example, dentures, in replacing teeth. Implants fuse through that osseointegration process to natural bone tissue. That means the body treats those implants as natural tissue. 

What can we expect from here?

Successful and popular as today’s titanium dental implants near you are, researchers and dentists in Brandon continue to look forward toward the next set of challenges facing and innovations that could benefit patients.

One challenge is the relative rarity of titanium on Earth. Because our supply of titanium is finite and relatively small, research is ongoing into alternative elements that trigger the same process of osseointegration. Ongoing research into biological processes — including at the molecular level — has produced a greater understanding of how cells grow and relate to each other. That increased knowledge may lead to the development of new techniques for encouraging the fusion of implant-to-bone faster and even more securely. 

If you’re living with tooth loss and are looking for solutions, you can claim the benefit of this history of innovation and discovery for yourself. Simply contact a dentist near you and ask if implants may be right for you.