As a professor of surgery and research, P-I Brånemark is considered the father of modern dental Implantology. In the early 50s, he discovered the process of osseointegration, which later was referred to as the direct structural and functional connection between living bone and the surface of a load-bearing artificial implant.
This discovery was a result of a series of vital microscopic experiments on blood in mobile tissues, bone and bone marrow by placing titanium optic chambers in rabbit’s tibia. Later, it was discovered it was extremely difficult to remove these chambers for further use after a period of healing.
Since then, Brånemark and his team conducted numerous research aimed at orthopedics, joint replacements, plastic surgery and tumor defects. In 1965, Brånemark treated the first human patient Gösta Larsson with titanium dental implants who was missing teeth as a result of jaw deformities. Larsson passed away in 2006, and used his implants for more than 40 years.
The initial reaction of skepticism and doubt was overcome in 1982 in North America at the Toronto conference on osseointegration. Here, the biology, clinical research, and applications of osseointegration were presented to the world, and since then for 32 years, millions of people have been able to benefit from the life-changing contributions of osseointegration.