Bone growth around dental implants.

For the complete understanding of stimulation of bone growth around dental implants, a thorough knowledge is necessary regarding the reaction of bone to trauma and to a variety of implant materials. The atraumatic preparation of the bony implant bed serves to create the most favorable situation for the formation of bone around any implant material. Some implant materials are more likely to result in soft tissue encapsulation despite the most careful handling of bone; others result in different amounts of implant-bone contact zones. From the character and the amount of bone formation around different implants, it can be concluded whether the used materials are biocompatible. Titanium-surfaced implants may not demonstrate the biocompatibility that is seen with hydroxyapatite-coated implants. However, the results seen with hydroxyapatite-coated implants have to be viewed critically because the biointegrity of these coatings has not been demonstrated until now. On the other hand, titanium-surfaced implants have success rates for as long as 25 years and enable the implantologist to rely on a well-accepted implant material. The use of guided tissue regeneration and the sinus augmentation technique appear to enable the implantologist to stimulate bone formation around dental implants. These techniques may extend the limits for the successful placement of dental implants into bone-deficient sites.