Dental Implant Prosthetics 2nd Edition – Carl E. Misch

Dental Implant Prosthetics
In the early 1900s, fixed partial dentures to replace missing teeth in a partially edentulous patient were vehemently opposed, and removable partial dentures were strongly encouraged. In 1911, Hunter blamed the “mausoleum of gold over a mass of sepsis” for complicating systemic conditions of anemia, gastritis, kidney disease, and lesions of the spinal cord.1 Despite this popular belief, fixed partial dentures became the standard of care to replace missing teeth and are still taught in every dental school in North America. In fact, if a dental student does not perform a traditional fixed partial denture, they do not graduate and join the dental community.
In the 1970s, the mere mention of dental implants was controversial.
Organized dentistry feared that these devices would always fail and could lead to a brain abscess or heart failure, because it was believed there was no barrier between the oral bacteria and the systemic pathways. However, in spite of this obstacle, a few hundred dentists around the world observed that patients readily accepted dental implants to support a mandibular complete denture or believed that a fixed implant prosthesis was more desirable than using removable restorations or preparing and joining adjacent teeth for fixed prostheses.
Today we are in the midst of a dental implant revolution.
There are more scientific and clinical articles written on dental implants than any other topic in dentistry. From 1950 to 1985, there were approximately 500 referred articles published on dental implants. Between the years 1985 and 1995, there were more than 1500 articles published on dental implants. More recently, from 1995 to 2005, there were over 5000 articles published in referred journals on topics related to dental implants.
Today, the dental implant is now accepted as a primary method to replace a single tooth or multiple adjacent missing teeth, or to support a removable or fixed prosthesis for a completely edentulous patient.

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