Tooth root implant

Details Tooth root implant Tooth root implant

1999-07-14

2001-11-13

Manahan, Todd E. (Department: 3732)

Dentistry

Prosthodontics

Holding or positioning denture in mouth

Reexamination Certificate

active

06315561

ABSTRACT:

TECHNICAL FIELD
The invention relates to an implant, in particular a tooth root implant, with a main body which is designed as an elastic body made of plastic.
PRIOR ART
As Fallschüssel has stated in “Zahnärztliche Implantologie” [Dental Implantology], Quintessenz Verlag GmbH, Berlin et al., 1986, pages 94-95, a large number of plastics are used in medicine for implantation purposes. It is also known, from U.S. Pat. No. 4,531,916, to provide tooth root implants made of different materials with a porous plastic shell in order to make it easier for body tissue to grow into the surface of the implant. In the dental sector, plastic implants afford the advantage of giving the patient a more normal “chewing feel” compared to metal implants. The reason for this is probably that the structure of plastics deviates from the structure of the jaw bone tissue to a lesser extent than does a metal structure. A problem which arises particularly often in the case of metal implants, but which has not as yet been satisfactorily remedied in plastic implants either, is that the ingrowth times for the implants are relatively long. Particularly in the case of metal implants, ingrowth times of up to six months are not unusual.
The U.S. Pat. No. 3,934,347 already suggested, in order to improve the ingrowth of an implant, to surround a metal cylinder which comprises a flange and at one end a bottom, with a silicone-embedded ceramic or metal ring and to attach fibrous matting or woven material to certain portions of the silicone rubber with the fibres being embedded into or glued onto the silicone rubber. The known implant is not only complicated as far as its construction is concerned but also consumes relatively much space which, as a result, weakens the jawbone.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The object on which the invention is based is that of making available an implant which, specifically when used in the dental sector, significantly reduces the ingrowth times and additionally ensures better homogeneity of implant and implant-retention site. According to the invention, this object is achieved, in an implant of the type set out in the introduction, by the fact that at least part of the outer surface of the main body is fibred, that the fibres of the fibred outer surface have, in the area near the main body, in each case a transition zone with a cross-section widening towards the main body, and that the strength of the plastic in the area of the fibres is greater than in the remainder of the main body.
The implant according to the invention affords the advantage that the fibre-structured outer surface of the implant connects to the body tissue in, as it were, a tentacle-like manner. This not only appreciably shortens the ingrowth times; it also gives a transition zone, between plastic implant and body tissue, which performs a buffer function, both in the event of sudden loads impacting on the implant and also in the normal process of mastication.
It is particularly advantageous if the main body of the implant is provided with a bore, and with slots which extend over part of the length of the main body and make it easier to widen the main body out. Widening the main body out by introducing suitably dimensioned screws into the bore of the main body makes it possible, in the dental sector, for the diameter of the main body, which has been widened out upon implantation, to be decreased more or less continuously during the ingrowth phase, and thus makes it possible to influence the size and the structure of the abovementioned buffer zone.


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patent: 5639237 (1997-06-01), Fontenot
patent: 5820374 (1998-10-01), Simmons et al.
patent: 9513028 (1995-05-01), None

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