OSSEOINTEGRATED IMPLANT DENTISTRY - MULTIPLE IMPLANTS

From its origin around the end of the 1980’s Osseointegrated Implant Dentistry has progressively evolved and been refined. Osseointegrated implants are now routinely utilized in dental offices around the planet, with the goal of restoring the function and the esthetics of edentulous areas of varying extents.

The materials and techniques that we have available today have permitted significant improvements in the approach to implant therapy , allowing us to fulfill the desires of an increasing number of patients in a shorter period of time and with a more limited invasiveness.Severely damaged or atrophic edentulous areas can be re rebuilt thanks to reconstructive osseous surgical techniques that make them suitable to receive, either simultaneously or in a deferred procedure, osseointegrated implants.Notwithstanding how such progress in the implant dentistry field has understandably generated enthusiasm, we shall not forget how the implant represents, in a certain way and in many cases, the failure of all the previous dental therapies. Under this point of view the growing number of implants placed worldwide may not represent, with the only exception for the implant manufacturers, a positive data. Every effort should hence be made by the dentist to attempt to salvage natural teeth that often, in spite of their degree of damage, can be restored and maintained for long periods of time. Another important observation worth mentioning comes from the awareness of how many of the scientific data that we have in the implant literature, although very encouraging, are still lacking the level of evidence that we would like to have. The presumed higher reliability of the “titanium artificial root” over the natural root that, at times, we hear or read about by more or less authoritative sources, is yet to be proven. The osseointegrated implants greatly satisfy the patients’ expectations, and the dentists’ therapeutical objectives, provided that they are inserted in oral cavities free from, or properly cleared from, other significant oral diseases and in particular periodontal pathologies. It is of utmost importance to use such devices within a properly thought out and meticulously organized multidisciplinary treatment plan.

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