Leonard I. Linkow (February 25, 1926 – January 26, 2017) was an American dentist and pioneer in the field of

oral implantology A dental implant (also known as an endosseous implant or fixture) is a prosthesis that interfaces with the bone of the jaw or skull to support a dental prosthesis such as a crown, bridge, denture, or facial prosthesis or to act as an orthodonti ...

. In 1969, he was nominated for a

Nobel Prize The Nobel Prizes ( ; sv, Nobelpriset ; no, Nobelprisen ) are five separate prizes that, according to Alfred Nobel's will of 1895, are awarded to "those who, during the preceding year, have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind." Alfr ...

in medicine, making him the only dentist to be nominated for the prize. Linkow held 36 patents in dental science.

Early life and education

Linkow was born in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

on February 25, 1926. He played baseball in high school and was signed to contract by the

New York Giants The New York Giants are a professional American football team based in the New York metropolitan area. The Giants compete in the National Football League (NFL) as a member club of the league's National Football Conference (NFC) East division. ...

to play for their minor league affiliate in

Springfield, Ohio Springfield is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Clark County, Ohio, Clark County. The municipality is located in southwestern Ohio and is situated on the Mad River (Ohio), Mad River, Buck Creek, and Beaver Creek, approxim ...

. He worked as a radio operator in the

U.S. Army Air Force The United States Army Air Forces (USAAF or AAF) was the major land-based aerial warfare service component of the United States Army and ''de facto'' aerial warfare service branch of the United States during and immediately after World War II ...

during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

. Turning down a career in professional baseball, he attended New York University's College of Dentistry, graduating in 1952.

Career

Linkow placed his first dental implant in 1952. In his New York City dental practice, he placed and equipped over 100,000 oral implants. His innovations in oral implantology included various designs of blade implants (implants placed with cortical support), the self-tapping ventplant, root form implants, the tripodal subperiosteal implant. All modern designs of 2-stage (2-piece) implants (except lateral-basal and screwable basal implants: implants placed in cortical anchorage) go back to Linkow's inventions. Linkow worked in immediate functional loading protocols (with machined implants) long before specific implant surfaces were introduced into the profession. Hence he considered such surfaces as "not necessary" for his work. Linkow served as the president of the American Academy of Implant Dentistry in 1974 and president of the American Board of Oral Implantology in 1993. He co-founded the American Society of Dental Esthetics along with

Irwin Smigel Irwin Elliot Smigel (October 9, 1924 – October 17, 2016) was an American aesthetic dentist, innovator and philanthropist. Smigel founded the American Society for Dental Aesthetics (ASDA), and was President of the ASDA until his death in 2016. S ...

. In addition to lecturing internationally, Linkow also authored 18 books and about 200 journal articles. Linkow was clinical professor at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private research university in New York City. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded by a group of New Yorkers led by then-Secretary of the Treasury Albert Gallatin. In 1832, the ...

Temple University Temple University (Temple or TU) is a public state-related research university in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1884 by the Baptist minister Russell Conwell and his congregation Grace Baptist Church of Philadelphia then called Ba ...

in Pennsylvania, the

University of Pittsburgh The University of Pittsburgh (Pitt) is a public state-related research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The university is composed of 17 undergraduate and graduate schools and colleges at its urban Pittsburgh campus, home to the universit ...

, and

Lille University The original public university in the Lille region of France was the University of Douai established in 1559 in Douai and that was moved to Lille in 1887 and 1896 as University of Lille (french: Université de Lille). Between 1970 and 2017 the Un ...

in France.

Death

Linkow died on January 26, 2017 at the age of 90.

Awards and honors

*Lifetime Achievement Award from the AAID, 2015 *Honored Fellow of the American Academy of Implant Dentistry *Isaih Lew Memorial Research Award, 1990 *Aaron Gershkoff/Norman Goldberg Award, 1974

Select bibliography

*''Implant Dentistry Today'' * ''Maxillary Implants'' (1977) *''Mandibular Implants'' (1977) *''Theories and Techniques of Oral Implantology (vol.1)'' (1970) *''Theories and Techniques of Oral Implantology (vol.2)'' (1970)

Legacy

Three institutes are named after Linkow: the Linkow International Institute of Oral Implantology in

Bari, Italy Bari ( , ; nap, label= Barese, Bare ; lat, Barium) is the capital city of the Metropolitan City of Bari and of the Apulia region, on the Adriatic Sea, southern Italy. It is the second most important economic centre of mainland Southern Italy a ...

; the Linkow International Institute of Oral Implantology in

St. Petersburg, Russia Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

; and Linkow Implant Institute-Caribbean in

Kingston, Jamaica Kingston is the capital and largest city of Jamaica, located on the southeastern coast of the island. It faces a natural harbour protected by the Palisadoes, a long sand spit which connects the town of Port Royal and the Norman Manley Inter ...

External links

The Dr. Leonard I. Linkow Library
American Academy of Implant Prosthodontics

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Linkow, Leonard 1926 births 2017 deaths American dentists American dentistry academics Dentistry education New York University College of Dentistry alumni People from Brooklyn 20th-century dentists