Dental Implants - Advancing technology

by Bruce Strickland BDS

Around the year 1500BC a poor wee Inca princess became the first ever dental patient to undergo dental implant therapy, after she had lost a couple of her lower front teeth. She called into her local Inca dental practice, where her new dentist took her medical history, and carried out a full dental exam and oral health check, while she reclined in the new state of the art stone chair, listening to the noise of parrots, and the screams of sacrifice from the local temple. The Inca dentist sat her up and then explained her options.

First, he said, "you can keep the space, at least you still have your back teeth." The next option was similar to the one George Washington took 2200 years later, making a denture out of leather and ivory. She said no to that offer due to the dreadful bad breath that they cause, and she then started accusing the dentist of not using his imagination and technology.

An idea then came to mind, "it a bit new and its not fully tested yet, and they are really expensive, but we have this new technology called Shell Dental Implants. What we do is shape a shell to look like your tooth and we then hammer it into your jaw when you are drunk. Princess, you will be beautiful!"

She took the marketing and 2500 years later her mummified remains were uncovered with the shells still fused to the bone, (I can here some patients asking the same old question - " was that on the NHS?").

Well, Dental Implant Therapy has come on a long way and today is arguably the most successful and predictable treatment ever invented in medicine. Modern implants are like little screws that are placed into the bone and the bone sticks to the special surface. Once in place a new tooth can be attached on top. If you lost a front tooth for example we can replace it with a dental implant in a totally pain free procedure. If we follow the correct protocols the new tooth we possibly last you for life. My success rate so far is 99%, and similar long-term success rates are quoted all around the world.

Dental implants are expensive with prices of around £1800 for a single tooth replacement - though one implant can carry 2 or more teeth.

Implants are changing the way we all work as dentists. One of the great disappointments of conventional dentistry is that it does not really last long enough. Root fillings fail, crowns last on average 14 years, bridges break, and we keep on add more teeth to partial dentures - all of this costing money.

With the first modern implant placed 43 years ago and still counting, we can, as modern dentists, offer very long-term options now. Today if a tooth if failing or it has to be replaced your discussion with your dentist really needs to be centred around how long you expect the solution to last for, and if you are looking for a life without dentures, or repeated treatments, then we have some very good solutions. And solutions that do not involve drunk patients, shells or hammers!