As the history of this discipline tells us, implants began to generalize when materials were discovered whose properties allowed what we call osseointegration. This principle has been maintained over the years, although advances both in the design of implants and in bone mass regeneration techniques have allowed intervention times to be reduced and more complex and lasting treatments can be addressed. When planning a treatment, specialists try to be as invasive as possible, do not delay too much in time and do not force many interventions. These objectives are achieved with relative ease if we talk about the replacement of few dental pieces and the patient does not have a great deterioration of the bone that is to receive the implant.
However, when the performances are aimed at the placement of many pieces or even complete dentures, it is more difficult to achieve them. However, thanks to the advances in implantology, we can affirm that we are getting closer to fulfilling them in the most sophisticated processes, to the point that the cases in which it is feasible to place implants and definitive teeth in the same intervention. For many years, primary stability was only achieved after a period of bone implant absorption, which also often had to be reinforced with grafts. Today bone grafts are still necessary in some cases, but the term of fusion has decreased due to advances in regeneration materials. With this, the patient had to undergo several interventions, carry provisional pieces and handle them carefully so as not to compromise the evolution of the implant, so that their quality of life was affected. We are overcoming these processes thanks to the aforementioned improvement of regenerative techniques, but also to the progress on the implants themselves. There is an extensive range of parts, of different sizes, thicknesses and anchoring systems, which respond to a wide range of pathologies.
On the other hand, we have technologies such as guided surgery devices, which help us determine the most precise location of implants in the mouth, according to the morphology of the patient and the quality of the existing bone mass. Therefore, we can say with satisfaction that dental implants are strengthened as the safest alternative for oral health restoration when the loss of one or more dental pieces occurs. It is a predictable and lasting treatment, which provides an experience analogous to that of natural teeth, and increasingly requires less uncomfortable interventions for patients.