Implant Surface Treatment

Implants have become an integral facet of prosthodontic therapy serving as transmucosal structures to support single teeth, fixed partial dentures, complete arch reconstructions and complete removable dentures or to reconstruct maxillofacial defects. However to elicit proper biological response to dental implants with adequate mechanical properties has remained a challenge. The history of dental implants as a treatment for replacement of missing teeth goes back many centuries where dental implants of bamboo, ivory and wood were used. Since then a tremendous improvement in the material and design of dental implants has taken place. The rate of clinical success of the use of oral implants is widely related to the bone formation at the implant surface called Osseo integration, a term coined by Dr. Branemark in 1952 in contrast with fibrous encapsulation that often leads to loss of the implant and consequent failure of the treatment.