Mini Dental Implants: Extensive Debate | OsseoNews Discussions on Dental Implants

Mini Dental Implants: Extensive Debate | OsseoNews Discussions on Dental Implants: "Branemark generally copied the size and the shape of the tooth in designing his first implant which is logical and made sense at the time. Everyone copied him after that without too much thought about the validity of his assumptions because it works. The question today is how much osseointegration is required to support a tooth say, the premolar in the mouth. The answer to this question will determine how big an implant should be and therefore will determine whether we should continue to make root sized implant fixtures or reduce and minimise its size optimally. How much osseointegration in terms of surface area and quality of bone attachment is required to support a premolar satisfactorily in a functioning dentition needs to be examined closely anew. Lets assume the quality of osseointegration is uniform for most interfaces between the bone and titanium surface. Therefore looking at just the surface area required per se, it follows that if osseointegration aka ankylosis is say, twice as tough as the normal periodontal ligament, then my friends, it seems that the minimised diameter implant is going to triumph over the conventional sized implant as the main workhorse in dental implantology! To say it simply, if it is true as we all know that ankylosis is tougher than the periodontal ligament sq mm for sq mm, then the minimised diame"