Like all good dental treatment, dental implants have been a long road of discovery and refinement. Before you could find reliable and permanent tooth implants in Lancaster, you could find them miles away in different countries and in much more different forms… They weren’t always the relatively risk-free and comfortable procedure they are now! When were dental implants invented, and when was the first tooth implant ever recorded?

The first dental implants

The first dental implant to have been recorded in the history books dates back over 1,300 years ago, in 600AD! Archaeologists found the earliest known use of a tooth implant while excavating a burial site in Honduras in 1931. A female jawbone was found at the Mayan burial site that contained three tooth-shaped pieces of shell and stone into the jawbone’s would-be empty tooth sockets. It was assumed these dental implants were placed after death due to how old the civilisation was and for cosmetic burial reasons, but it was later realised in 1970 that they were placed while the female was alive. This is because the jawbone was found to have compacted around the pieces of shell, indicating that they were placed during life and were even accepted by the body. This provided one of the earliest known indications that a jawbone could heal around and fuse with an artificial tooth root.

Early dental implants

Across the world and through different civilisations in history, dental implants were experimented with. Some managed form and not function, and others worked well but did not look too discreet… The Ancient Chinese, for example, used shards of bamboo to restore the ability to chew and bite. This may not have looked cosmetically appealing (or even been very comfortable), but it’s been indicated that they restored function to the mouth. The Ancient Egyptians, on the other hand, restored beautiful aesthetics to the teeth of their dead using jewels, precious stones, and sometimes other human teeth. These were often fixed with gold wires. This was because they believed the deceased would not be allowed safe passage into the afterlife without a ‘whole’ human body, though admittedly this did not help them with missing teeth when they were alive.

Titanium root discovery

Flash forwards to 1952, and we come across the published studies of the father of modern dental implants, Dr. Per-Ingvar Brånemark. It was he who discovered that titanium, the metal dental implants use as an artificial tooth root, was biocompatible. This means that it fuses with the jawbone to create a stable foundation. The breakthrough occurred when he placed a small titanium cylinder in a bone and later found that he couldn’t remove it, but the bone seemed to have fused it in place. Titanium actually attracts the bone to heal around it and fuse with the metal, which lead to the discovery of the perfect tooth implant root.

Dental implants in Lancaster

Luckily, the implant dentists at Viva Dental don’t use shards of bamboo, shells, or stones to replace your missing teeth! Instead, we use sturdy materials that look, feel, and function like real teeth to restore both form and function to your mouth. If you’d like to find out more, speak to a member of our team on 01524 735 431 to book your initial consultation at our dental practice today.