Glass Implant Fixture: Any Thoughts?
Dr. R. asks:
Please see the photo below. I removed, after 20+ years of successful service, what appears to be a glass implant. It has approximately the weight and density of glass, as opposed to resin, and clarity to match. The patient is a woman who just turned 90 and does not have much recall of the procedure, the product, or the dentist who placed it. Having never seen nor heard of anything like it, I thought I’d put the question to the forum: What is this? Who made it? In what time span was it likely placed? Assuming the main reason for its failure as a product was lack of bio-compatibility, are there any other reasons for its demise?
Implant perched on pre-removal x-ray
5 Comments on Glass Implant Fixture: Any Thoughts?
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Dr.Alejandro Berg
4/12/2011
Germans experimented and worked for many many years with ceramic implants (never seen one so translucent though) and used them in anteriors and premolars mostly, since they mainly published in german most of us dont know and really didnt care or tried to. This could be one of those rare survival cases of one of those several companies that dissapeared after sometime (post branemark.
Cheers
Dr. Morales Schwarz
4/12/2011
It could be an S. sandhaus sapphire monocrystaline implant introduced in the 80s
Kyocera also had an implant that looked like the one you showed in your picture.
Richard Hughes, DDS, FAAI
4/12/2011
Looks like a sapphire implant.
Wleed Haq
4/13/2011
Amazing - 20 years of service is pretty good for a glass implant. Looks like an Ankylos implant design - I see platform switching is not such a new concept after all.
Dr C
4/13/2011
These implant are indeed sapphire!! I have explanted a couple in the past (after 18years)...I would not consider 22 years a lack of biocompatibility but rather osseointegration!!
