- H P Weber: Harvard School of Dental Medicine, Boston, Massachusetts.
The replacement of missing teeth in partially or fully edentulous patients conventionally involved fixed or removable, partial or full prostheses supported by either natural teeth, soft tissues, or both. Prosthetic reconstructions were often limited by the number or distribution of abutment teeth, the morphology of the alveolar ridges, the periodontal health, or the remaining hard tissue structures of the abutment teeth. The possibility of adding abutments by inserting oral implants has, therefore, been a treatment approach desired for a long time by practitioners. However, it was not until recently that sufficient long-term success rates with implants could be reported. This review is limited to the new generation of implants that heal by osseointegration.