Introduction to osseointegration in clinical dentistry

lhe successful replacement of lost natural teeth by implanted prostheses would significantly advance dental treatment. Thousands of middle-aged and elderly edentulous patients suffer from advanced residual ridge reduction. These individuals cannot cope with conventional complete dentures and often confront the profession with problems that cannot be solved. Over the years several inventive and well-meaning dentists attempted to circumvent such prosthodontic problems by prescribing dental implants. Regrettably the optimal combination of materials, designs, and implant techniques has not yet been developed and standardized. As a result many patients have suffered unnecessarily from the well-intentioned application of human experimentation without genuinely informed consent. Recent research in the biologic response to different medical prostheses underscores the viability of a direct biologic attachment for dental implants. The term osseointegrution was coined by Branemark almost 20 years ago to describe the result of a large body of basic science, surgical, biomaterials, and prosthodontic research in the discipline (subject) of dental implants. The applied form of this research provides evidence of a breakthrough in this field. A conference on osseointegration in clinical dentistry, therefore, became a priority, and such a conferena was held in Toronto in May 1982. It was cosponsored by the University of Giiteborg and the University of Toronto with invitations sent to senior university prosthodontists and oral surgeons from North America. The preliminary objective of the conference was to subject the Swedish basic and clinical research to a collective scientific scrutiny prior to the establishment of training centers in academic health institutions in North America. This issue and the following two issues of the JOURNAL OF PROSTHETIC DENTISTRY will feature edited versions of the papers presented at the Toronto Conference on Osseointegration in Clinical Dentistry. Collated reprints of these articles will be available latar for distribution to all interested dentists, researchen, and librarians.