What makes dental implants in Hampshire so popular? The reasons are simple: they stay put in your mouth and allow you to eat whatever you like, and they last for the rest of your life. No wonder so many people are choosing implants from Dental Implants Hampshire over other restoration methods.
Really, it’s a wonder no one thought of dental implants earlier instead of faffing about putting false teeth on vulcanised rubber, or hanging them off buttresses made of perfectly good healthy teeth.
A little bit of history
Well, the truth is that people did think of dental implants a long time ago, centuries ago in fact. Archaeologists have found mummified Mayans with implants made from seashells and jade integrated into their jawbones. But this was in South America. In Europe, tooth replacement was going down the path of dentures made from dead soldiers, and ivory.
It was only in the 1950s that a Swedish scientist stumbled across the secret ingredient that has made all modern implants possible: titanium.
The miracle of titanium
Not only is titanium strong and light, it also has this rather amazing property of being biocompatible with the body. The body’s immune system rejects most foreign materials, and so making implants was not possible. Not until Per-Ingvar Brånemark discovered by chance that titanium and bone tissue seem to have rather a love affair going, with the titanium encouraging the growth of bone tissue around it, so that the two become enmeshed, and the bone holds onto the titanium implant as tightly as a long-lost lover. Great for replacing teeth, which, in order to work properly, have to be able to withstand multidirectional forces of up to about 200lbs or 97kg.
This process, known as osseointegration, takes several weeks to complete, which is why people having dental implants in Hampshire need to wait a while between having the implants fitted and having their custom-made crowns attached.
However, once the implants are in place, they are highly unlikely to fail, which means that you never have to replace them. The only thing that may cause failure is gum disease, so if you have implants you have to be vigilant about plaque removal, through brushing and regular scale and polishes.