On the Front Lines in the Dental Wars

[Grant]

This video is a treat for me as it demonstrates several aspects of the new dental technology. I have an implant myself, but never expected to see one like this in an American Bald Eagle, whose beak was blown away by a shotgun blast to her face. At this point, this usage is still experimental, but I can imagine many uses for similar procedures in the future to treat the wounds of human war.

[DayaxJeclee]

Dental? anyway surgical medicine already uses prosthetic ,such as implant and human dermal prosthetic .

Nice video

[Arabmann]

I have an implant myself

Does it feel and function like a normal teeth?

[Grant]

TAM,

Pretty much. The first go developed a cyst and we lost it at cementation of the first crown. The surgeon went in the second time at an angle in order to grab bone behind the original site. This left less than the usual width to restore with a second crown. What I ended up making was a third bicuspid, rather than a molar. The positioning is a bit weird because of bone loss at the implant/socket, but it balances my bite and gives me full first molar occlusion. Its solid as a rock and I am only aware of it if I am biting very hard on something that is itself very hard. I very much recommend implants over bridges or removable partial dentures. But it took over two years to complete mine and would have cost anyone else about $5K to complete.

I should mention that teeth and implants are in no way the same. Teeth "float" in tissue inside the bone of the jaw. Bone actually grows into the structure of an implant and becomes integral with it. It does not float, with the consequence that you do not have the same kind of proprioception you have with your natural teeth. For one thing, you do not have a good sense of the pressure you are putting on an implant, but I don't notice that it makes a lot of difference.

I am blown away by the glue they used in the video to attach the fixture to the bird's beak. The flexural pressure on both the fixture and the interface with the beak has to be enormous. My experience has been that exterior prosthetic pieces on humans have been secured either with existing anatomical undercuts or with attachments to implants in bone similar to what I have in my mouth. Other that for toupees that just sit there,this direct glue business is new to me. Besides the issue of the glue, this case is the equivalent of putting an entire human arch on one root of a single tooth. And I am still left wondering how her hygienist is going to deal with that thing. They must plan on the beak coming off.

[Arabmann]

I very much recommend implants over bridges or removable partial dentures.

Any side effects?

[Grant]

TAM,

None that I know of, provided proper materials are used and procedures followed. If very dissimilar metals are used in the implant, the implant head and the restoration, a galvanic response (electrical movement) into the tissue and bone can cause bone loss and failure of the implant. This has meant up to this point that titanium was used in the implant and head and a precious metal such as gold or palladium was used in the restoration. There is a movement now towards the use of tooth colored incoris zirconia for both heads and restorations that gets completely around the problem.

http://choosedentalimplants.com/content ... l-implants

"The success rate for dental implants is very high. According to the most recent research, the overall success rates in natural bone is 95%, though this falls to between 85% and 90% in grafted bone."

[DayaxJeclee]

there' always side effect, nothing is 100% .