Dental implants have been around for quite some time but did you know that most people in San Francisco think that dental implants were only invented in the last 50 years, and that they are a very modern form of treatment for missing teeth.
However, the truth of the matter is that dentistry in some form or another has been around for at least 9,000 years, and only recently a dental implant was found in the mouth of a Celtic woman who died 2,300 years ago.
Archaeologists were excavating a tomb in northern France when they discovered that the body of the woman had a metal pin where one of her teeth should have been. She was aged between 20 and 30 when she died, and was from a wealthy family, since her burial chamber was furnished richly, and the skeleton was found with a ring, a bronze bracelet and several brooches. While San Francisco is very far from France, this fact is very relevant.
It is believed that the metal implant would have been covered with a tooth carved from ivory or wood. Imagine having a wood or ivory tooth rather than the gorgeous work that we can do at our San Francisco dental implant office. The horror!
What is not known is whether the implant was inserted before or after death. If before, then it would have caused considerable pain being hammered into the jawbone. However, it may have been inserted after death in order to tidy her up and make her look as near perfect as possible before burial. It’s great that you don’t have to wait till after death to get dental implants and a set of good looking teeth.
If inserted while she was still alive, it is likely that she might have had something for the pain. The most obvious thing would have been some medicine created from willow which contains salicylic acid, which is the active ingredient of aspirin.
Dental Implant History is much older in the Bay Area
Even though this took place 2,300 years ago, it is by no means the oldest implant known. Another skeleton unearthed in Egypt has a replacement incisor carved from a shell, while another tomb in Algeria from 7,000 years ago uncovered a skeleton with a tooth made from bone.
Fortunately, in San Francisco today things have come on in leaps and bounds as far as dental implants are concerned. We don’t hammer iron pins into the jawbone any more – we use titanium screws. These have the advantage of being light and not subject to corrosion so they will remain in place forever. With modern day anesthetics to hand, the process is completely painless.
Dental implants are the perfect answer for replacing lost teeth, since they work in exactly the same fashion as the original tooth. While dentures are the cheapest form of tooth replacement in terms of immediate cost, they do have the disadvantage that they can still make some foods impossible to eat, and they can slip and slide around.
Dental implants cannot move and will also give you the confidence of getting your bright smile back again.
Dr Alex Rabinovich is the leading dental implant doctor in San Francisco and is happy to offer you a consultation and answer all your questions. You can email him at info@doctorrabinovich.com, or call (415) 992-9188 for an appointment.
