subject: What Are Dental Implants Made From? [print this page] Dental implants serve as roots to restorative teeth. It is through the use of these dental implants that 'life' is infused to the restorative teeth. Through the use of the dental-implants, people making use of restorative teeth end up with not only 'artificial teeth' that are placed in the mouth for the 'look good' factor, but actually teeth that chew and do all that is expected of teeth. Without the use of dental implants we risk end up with restorative teeth that are in essence dead: teeth that only look good, but are otherwise useless to the person in whom they are placed. Obviously, such teeth would, far from making life easier for their 'wearer,' actually be uncomfortable.
Now a commonly asked question with regard to dental-implants is as to what they are made from. This is a question that tends to come when people are informed of their prices. As it turns out, a great portion of the money that one has to pay for having restorative teeth installed goes into paying for the dental implants on which the restorative teeth are to be rooted, rather than paying for the restorative teeth themselves.
So what are dental-implants made from?
Well, for the most part, dental-implants tend to be made from a metal called titanium, or (increasingly) alloys of it.
To understand why dental implants have to made from titanium, it is important to recall that in them, we are usually looking for a material that the body will completely 'accept' and completely integrate with. It is only through the complete acceptance by the body and integration with it that dental-implants can give 'life' to the restorative teeth that they are to provide a root to. As it turns out, only titanium has been observed to have a way of eventually getting 'accepted' by the body to the extent required of a dental implant: that is, to the extent that blood starts flowing through it, and it starts getting nervous impulses.
For the most part then, dental-implants tend to be made from pure titanium. In the almost sixty years since their first development, it seems that no other metal has been discovered as an alternative to titanium as a material for making dental-implants. Pure titanium comes in many grades. Traditionally, it is grades one to four of it from which dental implants tended to be made from.
It has been discovered, more recently, that an alloy made from aluminum and titanium works just well as pure titanium in making dental-implants. The alloy in question is made using grade five titanium as the main material in it, but then including about 6 percent aluminum and 4 percent vanadium in it. This gives a way of saving on about ten percent of the titanium that could have been used in making the dental-implants, were they to be made from pure titanium. This alloy-based dental implants are slowly gaining acceptance in dental circles. For the most part though, pure titanium is still the most commonly used material for making dental implants.
