Believe it or not, the history of dental implants goes back as far as thousands of years. Archeologists have discovered ancient Chinese remains with tooth replacements made from bamboo and hammered into the bone—and the remains are 4,000 years old! Some 2,000-year-old Egyptian mummies have been found with dental implants of precious metals, ivory, and even human teeth. And Mayan remains have been discovered from 600 AD with missing teeth replaced by pieces of seashell. Even with their limited knowledge of science and archaic methods, many of these ancient “implants” were actually found to have fused with the bone.
It seems that ever since humankind has been losing teeth, we’ve been looking for ways to replace them.
The first modern dental implants were developed in the 1950s, when a Swedish doctor was studying bone regrowth in rabbits and found that he was unable to remove a piece of titanium metal in the rabbit’s femur. This led to the discovery that titanium has special properties which allow it to actually fuse with bone.
With the ability to fuse metal to bone, a host of possibilities opened up for dental patients with missing teeth. While dentures eventually lead to bone loss, dental implants retain bone structure and oral health. Modern dental implants have been changing lives for decades—and we think they look a lot nicer than bamboo or fragmented seashells!
If you are missing teeth and live in the Gush Etzion, Beit Shemesh And Jerusalem and Gush Etzion, Beit Shemesh And Jerusalem areas, you can benefit from thousands of years of progress that have led to this amazing time in history when dental implants are better than ever before. If you have questions about the dental implant procedure, what you will experience getting dental implants, or whether you are a candidate for dental implants, please give Dobro Dental Implants a call at 303-321-8400. It’s easy to set up a consultation with us to discuss these and any other questions you may have about dental implants.
Make that gap in your smile history. Choose dental implants today!
Information was used from the following website, accessed 4/15/2015: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_implant