Osseointegration – The Key To Successful Dental Implants

This critical part of implant dentistry can be a mystery to patients. Our Chelmsford dentists explain its importance.

Most of our patients probably have a basic idea of what happens during a dental implant procedure. To most, this is probably as simple as the dentist drilling a small hole in the jawbone and putting the implant in and attaching a crown on top. Looked at this way, it sounds very basic and not very scientific at all. Of course, nothing could be further from the truth and the procedure is complex and can only be carried out by qualified implant dentists.

Leaving aside the procedural part of the treatment which is carried out by our dentists, there is a key part of this treatment that is largely down to letting nature take its course. This is known as the osseointegration phase.

What is osseointegration?

When a dental implant is placed into the jaw bone, it isn’t the support of the bone per se that keeps it in place. If this were the case, it wouldn’t take long before the implant became loose or fell out.  This is where the osseointegration period comes in. Over a period of around three months, the bone in the jaw starts to fuse together with the implant, gradually gaining a stronger hold of it. Once this process is complete, the bone and the implant are fully bonded together and will be as strong, or stronger, than that of a natural tooth in its socket. Although it requires a little patience, this (typically) three month period is critical to the success of the implant.

Who came up with the idea that this might work?

You might expect that this key factor in an important development in dentistry was discovered by a team of dental scientists looking for a solution to this problem. Although it was a scientist, this is not quite how it happened. In fact, a Swedish orthopedic surgeon in the 1960s called Per-Ingvar Brånemark was carrying out an experiment that involved the placing of titanium rods into the bones of rabbits. As the experiment ended, and as titanium is an expensive metal, he naturally tried to save the titanium rods for a future experiment. To his surprise though, he found that the rods had bonded with the rabbit bone and were extremely difficult to remove. This new discovery led to further investigations and in 1965, Per-Ingvar Brånemark placed the first implants into a human patient. This patient, Gösta Larsson, finally died in 2006, more than forty years later, with the implants still in place. This fortuitous ‘accident’ had radically changed the way that we now routinely replace missing teeth at Blue Sky Dental.

Is it guaranteed to happen or can it fail?

Although osseointegration is a natural process, it isn’t a guaranteed one if the right conditions are not met. In essence, the mouth and the gums especially, need to be kept healthy. This means not only cleaning them well, with a few changes needing to be made during the early stages of this part of the treatment, but also being aware of how certain lifestyle choices may affect the implant, and certainly during this period.

Initially, certain things like eating softer foods to avoid pressure on the newly placed implant are important as is the need to avoid strenuous exercise that might ‘jar’ the implant. An example of this might be running, where the feet cause a jarring to the body as they hit the ground which could loosen the implant before it is fully bonded with the bone.

One of the biggest threats though is that of smoking and also excessive drinking. Both of these are known to be key factors in the development of gum disease. This is especially worrying at the advanced stage of gum disease known as periodontitis. This is when the bacteria reach to the bone in which the tooth or implant is held. The bone starts to deteriorate and the implant can become loose.  When you have a tooth implant placed at our Chelmsford dental clinic, you will be given comprehensive aftercare advice by the dentist. Please do follow this. The vast majority of implant placements are a success, but where they fail, they are usually due to a lack of following the correct aftercare.

Dental implants have been a gamechanger for a lot of people who would otherwise have had to wear dentures instead. While providing a reasonable aesthetic tooth substitute, denture movement is relatively common, making eating a chore rather than a pleasure and sometimes making speech more difficult too.

If you have been considering having teeth implants placed to replace a missing tooth but have been unsure about it,  we hope that this blog is of some help. We are always happy to discuss any questions you might have about them to help you make an informed choice. The best way to do this is to book a free non clinical consultation with an implant dentist by calling Blue Sky Dental to arrange yours on 01245 211070.