What I have learned from almost 40 years of experience with dental implants
It is today 50 years ago since the first patient was treated with dental implants based on the principles of osseointegration. The ultimate objective in the procedure of implant treatment is to establish osseointegration to provide a stable support for the prosthetic restoration. Once osseointegration has taken place the future aim is to maintain a biological equilibrium between the implant / prostheses and the surrounding host tissue over time.
Failure of osseointegration is today a relatively rare occasion in routine treatment and occur only in some few patients. Low incidence of failures introduces challenges to more in detail analyze different factors in this process. As an alternative to discuss parameters that are assumed to be related to future failures, it has been possible to identify higher numbers of implant failures from large numbers of patients treated over a long period of time in our clinic. This allows for analyzing early and late implant failures in relation to both the patient, clinical treatment and hardware factors. This presentation will focus on the challenge to try to understand clinical data and how to interpret different results related implant complications over the years.
Professor Torsten Jemt received a DDS degree in 1975 in Gothenburg, Sweden, and was Board Certified as a specialist in Prosthodontics in 1982, and received a PhD in 1984. Dr. Jemt was a co-worker with Professor P-I Brånemark in the development of the single implant abutments, and CAD/CAM titanium frameworks. He became Associate Professor in 1986 and later served as Professor in the Department of Prosthetic Dentistry and Dental Materials at the Sahlgrenska Academy at Göteborg University. He Co-founded the Brånemark Clinic in Gothenburg where he has served as chairman between 2000 and 2009. Now he holds a combined scientific position at the Faculty of Odontology and at the Public Dental Health Service. He is a member of the Editorial Boards of the International Journal of Prosthodontics, and Clinical Implant Dentistry and Related Research. He has published over 130 articles and lectures worldwide.