Changes in the “classical” factors influencing dental implant-osseointegration in recent decades

Abstract

Nowadays, it is almost naturally taken among dentists that seemed unimaginable a few decades ago, namely that an inorganic material (titanium) inserted in an organic environment (bone) can be integrated and become a permanent pillar of prosthetics. Bone integration – meaning a structural and functional connection between the implant and the bone – itself was discovered and described in the late 1960s. This provides the basis of dental implantology. In those days, the conditions affecting the positive or negative course of bone integration have been formulated. This process is investigated at the level of basic research and rarely mentioned in the daily clinical practice. The material, form, and surface of the implant all contribute to success if we design well and apply the correct surgical technique. Our goal is to present the changes that have taken place over the past decades, which have resulted in an increasingly perfect integration and clinical success of implants.