hygiene and prevention
in this issue
Implants Are Growing
in Popularity
by Trisha E. O’Hehir, RDH, MS
Hygienetown Editorial Director
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. n
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.com « FEBRUARY 2013
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Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Dentaltown February 2013