Dental Implants: The Art and Science Babbush C.A. (editor) W.B. Saunders Philadelphia, Pennsylvania 2001 532 pages; illustrated; indexed ISBN: 0721677479 $199.00 The text begins with the important initial consultation process, and then proceeds through surgical anatomic considerations. These are clearly outlined and aided by three-dimensional images, especially in the discussion of the maxillary sinus, mandibular nerve supply, and alveolar bone loss. Furthermore, early chapters discuss radiographic planning and evaluation, including digital and computed tomographic images, as well as discussion of bone and the latest in osteopromotors.
Dental implants have caught on as an alternative to dentures over the last decade. How successful is this technology, which was introduced in the U.S. only 13 years ago? In 1988, when the National Institutes of Health held its second–and most recent– consensus conference on dental implants, it pointed to serious information gaps about their long-term survival.As with non-dental surgical procedures, statistics quoted to would- be candidates tend to reflect clinical studies, that is, implants done by the pioneering experienced dentists at teaching centers, and are not necessarily the success rates of the procedure as it would be performed in the real world.Dental implant technology was perfected in Sweden over 25 years ago by Dr. P.I. Branemark and introduced in North America at a 1982 conference held at the University of Toronto. A dental implant is performed in two steps. A screw or cylinder, which serves as the stand-in for the missing tooth root, is surgically implanted into the jawbone by an oral surgeon or a periodontist (specialist in diseases of the gums).
