Advances in dentistry within the last decade approximately have generated incredible technological developments. Dental implants are becoming the treating choice to replace lost or missing teeth, and when done under proper surgical technique, success rates have surpassed 95%. When the idea of osseointegration or fusing titanium with bone was introduced to the dental community in the early 60s by an orthopedic surgeon known as P.I. Branemark, the applying with this concept was adapted to dental use; implementing the task, however, into a dental setting was viewed as risky and unpredictable. Success rates at this point with time rarely approached 55-60%, and many clinicians felt that their introduction into a patient's treatment plan might be too premature for predictable success of a particular prosthesis. To boost success rates, alterations in the look of the dental implant surface were introduced most without sound, clinical evidence to back-up manufacturer's claims of improved success rates. Through years of empirical experimentation, a titanium dental implant was developed that looked much like that of a natural tooth root.
Some 40 years later Dental Implants in Los Angeles, technology within the dental implant field has facilitated their colloquial use among general dentists and specialists. When the marketplace for implant dentistry exploded not greater than a decade ago, many implant manufacturers decided to change the topographical surface of the implant fixture with unsubstantiated claims of improved success rates to win market share within the major implant firms that currently hold 85-95% of US dental implant sales.
Unfortunately, there's a huge amount of poorly written research that's being introduced in to the dental literature with false claims of improved success rates. In lots of instances, implant manufacturers have made changes to the design of these implant due to improved success rates seen with a competitor implant that has the proper research and clinical documentation. With the dental implant industry growing every year, this problem won't cease to exist.
As a potential implant candidate, there are numerous things you should know concerning this industry just before continuing with treatment:
FACT: Doctors do not want formal surgical training on humans to put dental implants.
Actually, one implant manufacturer particularly holds educational seminars for doctors wanting to position dental implants on the length of just one weekend. That's right, in just 2 days, doctors get a surgical training certificate which states they have formal training in surgical implant dentistry and therefore may place dental implants in a human subject. Unfortunately, the course doesn't train these doctors on human subjects, rather, on plastic jawbones.
FACT: The US government doesn't require FDA approval for a dental implant fixture to be marketed to the professional community.
The US government includes a governing body that oversees biomedical devices and their potential implementation into the medical and dental community. If, as an example, a dental implant meets certain criteria necessary for surgical placement into the human body predicated on prior submissions by other manufacturers which may have tested the unit, then the governing body will grant 510K clearance to the implant manufacturer. 510K clearance allows dental implant manufacturers (and other biomedical device manufacturers) to market their device without the need for prior animal or human testing! If another biomedical device has been previously introduced with similar intent, then a literature for the first product can be utilized to formalize 510K clearance.
FACT: So many implants, so little time
Your competitors for the dental implant market is fierce, and after patents have expired on tested devices proven to be suited to human use, some implant manufacturers will duplicate the style of the devices. Implant manufacturers seeking a spot in the competitive dental implant market will copy the look of an implant that's an expired patent, save for a minor change here and there. These implants are known as clones and are marketed to dentists at a significantly reduced fee. In many instances, these implant clones have absolutely NO clinical documentation to substantiate their manufacturer's claims. In fact, these companies use literature given by the implant manufacturer from whom they're copying!
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