Per-Ingvar Brånemark (3 May 1929 – 30 December 2014) was a
Swedish physician and researcher, known as the "father of modern
dental implant
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 (dentistry), crown, bridge (dentistry), bridge, dentures, denture ...
ology".
The ''Brånemark
Osseointegration Center'' (BOC), named after its founder, was founded in 1989 in
Gothenburg
Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...
, Sweden.
Biography
After studying at
Lund University
Lund University () is a Public university, public research university in Sweden and one of Northern Europe's oldest universities. The university is located in the city of Lund in the Swedish province of Scania. The university was officially foun ...
in Sweden, Brånemark became professor of
Anatomy
Anatomy () is the branch of morphology concerned with the study of the internal structure of organisms and their parts. Anatomy is a branch of natural science that deals with the structural organization of living things. It is an old scien ...
at
University of Gothenburg
The University of Gothenburg () is a List of universities in Sweden, university in Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg. Founded in 1891, the university is the third-oldest of the current List of universities in Sweden#Public universities, S ...
in 1969.
Brånemark has been awarded many prizes for his work, including the coveted
Swedish Society of Medicine's Söderberg Prize in 1992—often referred to as the 'mini-
Nobel'—and the Swedish Engineering Academy's equally prestigious medal for technical innovation.
Brånemark has also been honored with the
Harvard School of Dental Medicine Medal for his work on
dental implant
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 (dentistry), crown, bridge (dentistry), bridge, dentures, denture ...
s in the
United States
The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
and holds more than 30 honorary positions throughout
Europe
Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocean to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the west, the Mediterranean Sea to the south, and Asia to the east ...
and
North America
North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...
, including the Honorary Fellowship of the
Royal Society of Medicine
The Royal Society of Medicine (RSM) is a medical society based at 1 Wimpole Street, London, UK. It is a registered charity, with admission through membership. Its Chief Executive is Michele Acton.
History
The Royal Society of Medicine (R ...
in the
UK.
In 2003, he received an
honorary doctorate
An honorary degree is an academic degree for which a university (or other degree-awarding institution) has waived all of the usual requirements. It is also known by the Latin phrases ''honoris causa'' ("for the sake of the honour") or '' ad hon ...
from the
European University of Madrid. He was the winner of the
European Inventor Award 2011 in the category Lifetime achievement. In 2014, he died at the age of 85.
Dental implantology
In 1978, the first
Dental Implant
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 (dentistry), crown, bridge (dentistry), bridge, dentures, denture ...
Consensus Conference was held, sponsored jointly by the
National Institutes of Health
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) is the primary agency of the United States government responsible for biomedical and public health research. It was founded in 1887 and is part of the United States Department of Health and Human Service ...
and
Harvard University
Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
. It was a landmark event, at which
retrospective
A retrospective (from Latin ', "look back"), generally, is a look back at events that took place, or works that were produced, in the past. As a noun, ''retrospective'' has specific meanings in software development, popular culture, and the arts. ...
data on
dental implant
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 (dentistry), crown, bridge (dentistry), bridge, dentures, denture ...
s were collected and analyzed and criteria and standards for implant dentistry were established.
In 1982 in
Toronto
Toronto ( , locally pronounced or ) is the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, most populous city in Canada. It is the capital city of the Provinces and territories of Canada, Canadian province of Ontario. With a p ...
, Brånemark presented work that had begun 15 years earlier in Gothenburg. Brånemark's investigations into the phenomenon of
osseointegration, or the biological fusion of
bone
A bone is a rigid organ that constitutes part of the skeleton in most vertebrate animals. Bones protect the various other organs of the body, produce red and white blood cells, store minerals, provide structure and support for the body, ...
to a foreign material, reinvigorated the field of implantology. The Toronto conference brought widespread recognition to the Brånemark implant methods and materials and is one of the most significant scientific breakthroughs in
dentistry
Dentistry, also known as dental medicine and oral medicine, is the branch of medicine focused on the Human tooth, teeth, gums, and Human mouth, mouth. It consists of the study, diagnosis, prevention, management, and treatment of diseases, dis ...
since the late 1970s.
The Brånemark System of dental implants was bought out and is currently available from
Nobel Biocare.
Work on osseointegration
Brånemark's work in the field of
osseointegration reinvigorated the realm of implant dentistry and brought it from being a shunned field into one that became recognized and incorporated into dental school curricula and training programs.
[Shulman, LB; Driskell, TD: Dental Implants: A Historical Perspective. In Block, M; Kent, J; Guerra, L, editors: ''Implants in Dentistry''. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders, 1997. page 6.]
Early modern dental implant technology consisted of blade and transosteal implants. Blade implants, introduced in 1967, consisted of a metal blade that was placed within a bony incision that subsequently healed over the horizontally situated piece of metal but allowed a vertical segment to perforate the healed surface. Transosteal implants, the application of which was strictly limited to the
mandible
In jawed vertebrates, the mandible (from the Latin ''mandibula'', 'for chewing'), lower jaw, or jawbone is a bone that makes up the lowerand typically more mobilecomponent of the mouth (the upper jaw being known as the maxilla).
The jawbone i ...
, consisted of a number of screws which were inserted into the inferior aspect of the mandible, some of which extended through and through into the oral cavity.
[Shulman, LB; Driskell, TD: Dental Implants: A Historical Perspective. In Block, M; Kent, J; Guerra, L, editors: ''Implants in Dentistry''. Philadelphia: W.B. Saunders, 1997. page 6]
It was previously thought that both of these implant types relied on mechanical retention, as it was heretofore unknown that metal could be fused into the bone. With the advent of the current understanding of osseointegration, however, rootform endosteal implants became the new standard in implant technology.
The phenomenon of osseointegration was first described by Bothe et al. in 1940 and later by Leventhal et al. in 1951.
Brånemark's studies, and his subsequent coining of the term ''osseointegration'', occurred a year after Leventhal's work during vital
microscopy
Microscopy is the technical field of using microscopes to view subjects too small to be seen with the naked eye (objects that are not within the resolution range of the normal eye). There are three well-known branches of microscopy: optical mic ...
studies in
rabbit
Rabbits are small mammals in the family Leporidae (which also includes the hares), which is in the order Lagomorpha (which also includes pikas). They are familiar throughout the world as a small herbivore, a prey animal, a domesticated ...
s using titanium optic chambers. He and his team found that
titanium
Titanium is a chemical element; it has symbol Ti and atomic number 22. Found in nature only as an oxide, it can be reduced to produce a lustrous transition metal with a silver color, low density, and high strength, resistant to corrosion in ...
oculars placed into the lower leg bones of rabbits could not be removed from the bones after a period of healing (see photo at right). He then developed and tested a type of dental implant utilizing pure titanium screws, which he termed fixtures.
Although the field of implantology was eschewed by dental academia until that time, the "extensive and weighty documentation of implant efficacy and safety" and "early replication by reliable, independent researchers" resulted in the widespread embrace of implantology by the dental community.
Brånemark's son, Rickard, has taken this success and is developing orthopedic
prostheses in the form of artificial arms and legs anchored to the
human skeleton
The human skeleton is the internal framework of the human body. It is composed of around 270 bones at birth – this total decreases to around 206 bones by adulthood after some bones get fused together. The bone mass in the skeleton makes up ab ...
.
Gösta Larsson (1931–2006) was the first recipient ever of a modern
dental implant
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 (dentistry), crown, bridge (dentistry), bridge, dentures, denture ...
, which occurred in 1965. Brånemark, by then Professor of Anatomy at
University of Gothenburg
The University of Gothenburg () is a List of universities in Sweden, university in Sweden's second largest city, Gothenburg. Founded in 1891, the university is the third-oldest of the current List of universities in Sweden#Public universities, S ...
in Sweden, placed the first titanium dental implant into a human volunteer. Larsson, a Swede who was
edentulous (toothless) at the time and had been born with severe chin and jaw deformities, agreed to the test because he wanted to have teeth again. He died in 2006, having used his implants for over 40 years.
The History Of Dental Implantation
, implantru.com, accessed 2010-06-13
See also
* Osseoincorporation
References
External links
Nobel Biocare Convention 2007
Bacterial Persistence in Dentoalveolar Bone Following Extraction: A Microbiological Study and Implications for Dental Implant Treatment - Clinical Implant Dentistry and Related Research
{{DEFAULTSORT:Branemark, Per-Ingvar
1929 births
2014 deaths
Dental materials
Academic staff of the University of Gothenburg
European Inventor Award winners