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In This Section by Trisha O’Hehir, RDH, MS Editorial Director, Hygienetown

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Implants Are Growing
in Popularity

by Trisha O'Hehir, RDH, MS
Editorial Director, Hygienetown

The first dental implants were tooth-shaped pieces of shell placed into mandibular anterior tooth sockets of a Mayan woman in her 20s. This discovery was made at a burial site in Honduras and it's estimated that the implants were placed in 600 AD. Modern dental implants date back to the 1950s when only a few dentists were experimenting and most were blade-shaped.

Today's root-form implants were introduced in the 1980s and were met with a rather chilly welcome. Implants were actually considered a passing phase that wouldn't last. Oral surgeons didn't want to do them since their focus was taking teeth out, not putting them into the mouth. Some went into oral surgery to get away from restorative dentistry and resisted the idea of implants as bringing them back to restorative procedures. Periodontists, who prided themselves on saving even the most hopeless of periodontally involved teeth, saw implants as selling out to do something far from their core training. General dentists weren't interested in investing the time and money needed to really learn to place implants.

But as with so many new technologies, implants and the associated technology evolved and improved. And popularity followed. It's now difficult to find an oral surgeon or periodontist who doesn't place implants. Some periodontists have completely abandoned their traditional surgical/non-surgical practices to limit their work to implants and many general dentists now place implants.

Patients opt for implants routinely and clinicians are bravely placing implants where those before them would never have dared - and with that comes more disease. Implant maintenance is more important now than ever before and this month's CE provides valuable information for dentists and hygienists who provide care for patients with implants every day.

Inside This Section
114    Perio Reports
118    Profile in Oral Health: A.I.M. for Implant Success
126    Message Board: Scaling on Patients with Implants
Dentaltown Magazine
April 2024
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