Per-Ingvar Brånemark (May 3, 1929, to December 30, 2014) was a Swedish doctor and scientist. He is known as the "father of modern dental implantology." The Brånemark Osseointegration Center (BOC), which is named after him, was established in 1989 in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Biography
After completing his studies at Lund University in Sweden, Brånemark became a professor in the field of anatomy at the University of Gothenburg in 1969.
Brånemark has received many awards for his work, including the highly respected Söderberg Prize from the Swedish Society of Medicine in 1992, which is often called the "mini-Nobel," and an important award for technical innovation from the Swedish Engineering Academy.
He has also been honored with the Harvard School of Dental Medicine Medal for his research on dental implants in the United States. Brånemark held more than 30 special honors across Europe and North America, such as the Honorary Fellowship of the Royal Society of Medicine in the UK. In 2003, he was given an honorary doctorate by the European University of Madrid. He won the European Inventor Award in 2011 for Lifetime Achievement. Brånemark passed away in 2014 at the age of 85.
Dental implantology
In 1978, the first Dental Implant Consensus Conference was held. It was organized by the National Institutes of Health and Harvard University. This event was important because it collected and studied past information about dental implants. It also created rules and standards for implant dentistry.
In 1982, in Toronto, Brånemark shared work he had started 15 years earlier in Gothenburg. His research on osseointegration, which is when bone fuses with a foreign material, helped revive the field of implantology. The Toronto conference made Brånemark’s implant methods and materials widely known. This event is considered one of the most important scientific advances in dentistry since the late 1970s.
The Brånemark System of dental implants was later purchased and is now available from Nobel Biocare.
Brånemark’s research on osseointegration helped implant dentistry gain recognition. It moved the field from being ignored to being included in dental school programs and training.
Early modern dental implants included blade and transosteal types. Blade implants, introduced in 1967, had a metal blade placed in a cut in the bone. The bone healed over the horizontal part of the blade, but a vertical part extended through the healed surface. Transosteal implants were only used in the lower jaw. They used screws inserted into the lower jaw, with some screws extending into the mouth.
At first, it was believed these implants worked through mechanical force because it was unknown that metal could fuse with bone. However, after understanding osseointegration, rootform endosteal implants became the standard in implant technology.
The concept of osseointegration was first described by Bothe et al. in 1940 and later by Leventhal et al. in 1951. Brånemark later studied this phenomenon during experiments with titanium optic chambers in rabbits. He and his team discovered that titanium parts placed in rabbit bones could not be removed after healing. This led him to develop dental implants using pure titanium screws, which he called fixtures.
Before Brånemark’s work, implantology was not widely accepted in dental schools. However, detailed evidence showing the safety and effectiveness of implants, along with independent research, led the dental community to accept implantology.
Brånemark’s son, Rickard, has continued this work by developing orthopedic prostheses, such as artificial arms and legs, that are attached to the human skeleton.
Gösta Larsson (1931–2006) was the first person to receive a modern dental implant. This happened in 1965 when Brånemark, then a professor at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, placed the first titanium implant in a human volunteer. Larsson, who was toothless and had severe jaw deformities, agreed to the test because he wanted to have teeth again. He used the implants for over 40 years before passing away in 2006.