An Historical Look at Dental Implants and Dentures

Appearances are important to virtually everyone. No matter what country, civilization, or time period you look at, the fact remains that people have cared about how they look since, virtually, the beginning of time.

It’s surely not a bad thing, but it can get complicated when the time comes to think about replacing your teeth, because the fact remains: you only get one set.

The history books tell us that even the ancient Mayans cared about cosmetic dentistry, because they went down in the books as the first recorded civilization to use dental implants. Years ago, archaeologists recovered ancient mayan skulls that had some very distinctive dental work, including teeth that had been replaced by carved stones, parts of seashells, and jade. However, while this might sound ridiculous, some of the early dental implants were actually successfully fused to the skull’s jawbone.

Years and years later, when surgeons learned that bones would successfully bond to titanium the idea came full circle and dental implants were born. The basic concept of a dental implant involves implanting surgical titanium into the jawbone, effectively replacing the tooth’s root structure. Using a protruding piece of the titanium post, a wide variety of dental prostheses can be attached, giving the patient perfectly natural looking and functioning artificial teeth.

Implants are often preferred to other solutions (like dentures) due to the fact that the implants aren’t just safe and effective for replacing multiple teeth, they also help slow bone loss because of the way the titanium post acts as a root in the jawbone. When solutions like dentures are used, bone loss in the jaw can actually become accelerated due to the pressure placed on the bone from the dentures. The result of this is the eventual shrinking and deformation of facial muscles, which can contribute to wrinkling, jowls, and a pointed chin.

To help remedy this, the technology behind dental implants has continued to advance by leaps and bounds. Which brings us to the topic of overdentures, a popular and more permanent alternative to full or partial dentures, which can be used as long as the patient has enough bone-structure to place an implant.

When a full set of upper or lower teeth are placed with dental implants, the implant alternative to partial or full dentures is an overdenture. Overdentures can be a great solution to help patients improve their quality of life while replacing a full set of teeth.

Primary Dental Care is a dedicated provider of affordable dentures and comprehensive dental care in Orange County and Garden Grove, California.