As an implantologist dedicated exclusively to the placement of dental implants in Murcia, I am more than aware of this: it is always traumatic for a patient to have to lose a tooth. No matter the patient's profile, the most normal thing is that they try to avoid extraction at all costs. Afterwards, once the loss has been accepted, the questions are usually the same. However, if you want to find out more about the reasons for the loss of a tooth, you can ask yourself replacing a missing toothsurgery, or on whether or not implant placement is painfulI recommend other articles from this blog.
Once we get the idea that implants are the best option for replacing our teeth, questions arise such as the one that gives the title to this article and which had never bothered us until now:
What material are dental implants made of?
When we talk about the implant itself, as you will know if you have come this far, we are referring to the 'screw' (although I don't like to call it that). In this particular case, if you look for information on your own, it is possible that you mix up concepts, as happens to some of the patients I see in the office. When it comes to implants, you may hear about materials such as titanium, zirconium or tantalum; about connections such as morse, internal or external; and even about surfaces, whether they are polished, sandblasted or hydroxyapatite. So put yourself in the hands of a good professional who will be able to advise you!
By way of summary and without going too much into the scientific literature, I will tell you that the most tested implants are currently titanium implants. There are few materials that allow such an intimate and stable union between the implant and the patient's bone, due to the process of oxidation of the surface layer of the implant itself, without this oxidation producing detachment of the aforementioned layer. Scientifically, this process is called osseointegration.
Osseointegration is basically the optimal healing after implant placement, the solid union between the implant and the bone. It takes about 3 months to occur definitively, although it goes through various phases beforehand.
As we said, the implants are made of titanium, and specifically the best option is type 4 titanium. This is a non-magnetic and biocompatible metal that is also used for other prostheses in the rest of the body, such as the hip. It is highly resistant to corrosion and can withstand high pressures. This makes titanium grade 4 the ideal material for the construction of surgical and dental implants that are subject to high mechanical stresses.
