New teeth implants

Implants are artificial roots which are used to insert teeth and which nowadays give very good results. Nevertheless, the Inasmet Foundation together with the dental specialist Mikel Maeztu is developing a new treatment for the Donostia company, Lifenova Biomedical. This treatment will help to strengthen the union between implant and bone. It involves implants inserted through ionic implantation.

The aim of the research is to develop new implants for human patients, and so before carrying out the first tests on humans, many previous tests have to be carried out, both at the laboratory level and with animals. To date tests have been carried out with rabbits and dogs and eventually will be carried out on humans.

The problem arises from the fact that not just any material may be implanted into the body. On the material being foreign to the organism, it will be attacked by the immune system. Thus, it is important to use material that will not trigger an immune response, i.e. biocompatible materials. These materials are called biomaterials, and they are ever-increasingly used in medicine.

This biocompatibility is also necessary in the case of dental implants. Titanium is precisely what is used as it is inert and has a very high level of compatibility with human tissues.

But, apart from being accepted by the organism, it is important that the bone cells grow well around the implant. If this does not happen, then the artificial tooth will have little strength.

This is precisely what is being investigated in Inasmet. They are trying to obtain a stronger union between bone and implant. To this end, the implants used are not new but the treatment applied to them is.

With this treatment of osteoblasts, the bone cells strongly bond the titanium, more strongly than with other kinds of treatment. This strong bonding makes the cells and, therefore, the bone, grow over the titanium. In this way the treatment increases the capacity of the human body itself to regenerate.

Finally high-powered microscopes are used to see if the bone has grown around the implant. The electronic microscope, for example, enables the implant-bone union with great clarity; i.e. the situation of each cell growing around the implant can be seen, one by one, and so, in this way, the quality of the new treatment can be inspected.

To date, the treatment has provided good results wilt cells and with animals, all that is needed now is to test trial with humans.

Contact :

ELHUYAR Fundazioa
aitzibera@elhuyar.com
(+34) 943363040