The present invention relates to the field of dental implants and, more particularly, to the design of the implant's head that maximizes long term stability of the hard and soft tissues surrounding the implant, the abutment and the prosthesis connected to it.
Dental implants are used to replace teeth that have been lost. An implant is placed in the jaw bone at the site of the missing tooth and a dental prosthetic unit is attached to it. The long term functional and aesthetic success of dental implants, and the prostheses attached to them, is determined by the response of the hard and soft tissues around them. Throughout the history of the art of dental implantology, it has been known that some bone loss and subsequent soft tissue recession always occur and have to be accepted.
In recent years, it has been shown that bone loss and soft tissue loss can be lessened by improving the tissue environment around the head of the implant and its connection with the prosthetic unit. Several implant designs having reduced connection diameter provided more soft tissue volume above the implant head and around the prosthetic abutment and have shown better hard and soft tissue responses. See, for example, the conventional, prior art implant 1 shown in
However, bone loss still occurs where there is less bone thickness around the implant head. This effect is most evident, and results in the most disturbing outcome, when it occurs in the thin bone plates buccal to implants placed in the anterior region of the mouth where the tissues are exposed in the smile, as well as between adjacent implants, particularly in the anterior region. Dental professionals go to great lengths to prevent this effect by trying to locate the implant head away from the buccal plate, thus attempting to allow more bone thickness buccal to the implant head. But bone ridge size and implant dimensions may hinder their success.
Similarly, when adjacent implants are required, it may be difficult to leave sufficient space between the implants to permit the required tissue volume.
It is an established clinical fact that thicker buccal bone and larger bone volume are associated with reduced bone loss and reduced soft tissue loss. For that reason, smaller diameter implants are sometimes used in the anterior region of the mouth but at the expense of sacrificing mechanical strength of the fixture and of the connection or sacrificing prosthetic flexibility (such as when using one piece implants).
In addition, it is sometimes of great practical advantage to be able to directly access the abutment-to-implant connection screw through the crown unit. However, in the anterior maxillary regions, where it may be most desired to access from the lingual (palatal) direction, it is, in many cases, not possible due to the anatomy, size and orientation of the bone ridge (as seen in
Accordingly, there is a long felt need for a dental implant which results in reduced bone and soft tissue loss and which can be more successfully implanted in more problematic situations.
The present invention solves this problem by providing a modified head portion on the dental implant that allows more bone volume in critical locations around the implant head. At the same time, the mechanical strength of the implant and of the connection is maintained by retaining the remainder of the implant unchanged with reference to conventional implants. In this way, bone resorption and gum recession in critical areas around dental implants can be reduced.
There is thus provided, in accordance with the present invention, a dental implant including an implant body having a top surface, and at least one non-annular cutaway portion longitudinally extending downwardly from the top surface along one side of the body and outwardly to the periphery.
According to one embodiment of the invention, the dental implant further includes a screw receiving bore extending downwards from the top surface for coupling an abutment to the implant. The screw receiving bore may be concentric with the longitudinal axis of the implant, it may be non-concentric with the longitudinal axis of the implant, and/or it may be formed at an angle relative to the longitudinal axis of the implant.
According to another embodiment of the invention, the implant is a one-piece implant and the cut away portion extends along at least part of the intrabony portion and may include the trans-mucosal portion of the implant.
According to some embodiments, the cutaway portion is tapered. According to others, the cutaway portion ends in a shoulder. According to still others, the cutaway portion extends along the entire length of the body.
In some embodiments, there are two, oppositely disposed, cutaway portions longitudinally extending downwardly from the top surface along opposite sides of said body and outwardly to the periphery. In other embodiments, there are three cutaway portions longitudinally extending downwardly from the top surface, equidistant around the body and outwardly to the periphery.
Further according to the present invention, there is provided a dental implant including a body portion and a head portion integrally formed with the body portion, the head portion having a top surface; the body portion having a periphery and the head portion having a non-circular periphery; and wherein the periphery of the head portion is smaller than the periphery of the body portion.
There is further provided, in accordance with the invention, a method of forming a dental implant, the method including forming an implant body having a top surface; and cutting away at least one non-annular portion longitudinally extending downwardly from the top surface along one side of the body and outwardly to the periphery.
There is further provided, in accordance with the invention, a method of forming a dental implant, the method including providing a substantially cylindrical or conical implant body having a longitudinal axis; and forming a head portion having a top surface on the body. The head portion is formed by cutting away a portion of the periphery of the head portion so that the head portion has a non-circular periphery that is smaller than the periphery of the body.
The present invention will be further understood and appreciated from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the drawings in which:
The present invention relates to a dental implant with a modified head portion that allows more bone in critical locations around the implant head without sacrificing the mechanical strength of the implant and of the connection. An object of the present invention is to reduce bone resorption in critical areas around dental implants by employing this modified design of the head of the implant.
The new design involves providing an implant having a body and an integrally formed head of substantially smaller periphery than the periphery of the body, where the periphery of the head is not annular. The implant includes an implant body having a top surface from which one or more parts of the circumference of the predominantly tubular shape of the implant body are cut away from the top surface down to a desired height. The flattened surface allows more bone thickness adjacent to it, as compared to an implant having a full contour tubular shape, as the cutaway area becomes filled with new bone growth. The gain in bone thickness in critical areas, such as where there is a thin buccal bone plate or a thin mandibular ridge or between adjacent implants, is substantial and results in a lower risk of bone resorption and the consequent aesthetic compromise
One example of an implant 10 according to the present invention is shown in cross-section in
It should be noted that the topology of the cutaway portion of the implant head may be designed in any one of a variety of ways. The smaller periphery portion may be flat or planar, or it can be curved. If desired, the narrow periphery portion can have the same surface topology as the remainder of the head of the implant, for example, with microthreads or rings for improved adhesion to bone and tissue. As stated above, the smaller periphery head portion may extend to include any part of the implant's length up to its entire length. In addition, more than one longitudinal cutaway portion may be provided, preferably arranged symmetrically around the body. For example,
According to certain embodiments of the invention, the screw receiving bore for connecting the abutment is not concentric with the longitudinal axis of the implant. This permits the periphery of the implant head to be even smaller than in the symmetrical implant according to the invention described above.
The connection itself (the interface between implant and abutment) could be tilted and in line with the tilted screw or, alternatively, the connection could be kept parallel to the longitudinal axis of the implant with just the screw hole and screw access tilted toward the lingual.
Thus, it will be appreciated that the particular design of the implant can be selected according to the location in the patient's mouth and the state of the patient's jaw.
It will be appreciated that the modified head design disclosed in the present invention can be applied to all implant designs, regardless of body shape, thread type, length, diameter, connection, surface treatment and material used, or whether it is a bone level, tissue level or one-piece implant. See, for example,
An implant with a single flattened or cut away area will have a single most proper (optimal) orientation (i.e., with the cut away area oriented adjacent the thin bone portion of the jaw). This type of implant, with a single cut away portion has a single proper orientation within a full 360 degree of rotational insertion and is better suited for smaller step, tighter thread implants or non-threaded implants. However, this characteristic may be a detriment in the case of threaded implants with a large thread step. While that may not be a problem in the anterior region where sub-bone-level positioning is often carried out, when this is an issue, the heads of the implants could be made with two or three cutouts, as illustrated above, so as to provide two-way or three-way symmetry. In this way, the implant can be rotated until any one of several cutout portions is disposed facing the problematic area of the jaw, so that additional bone growth will be possible in that area. These embodiments of the invention allow for smaller depth variability. A two cutout implant head allows two proper positions within every full rotation and a three cutout implant head allows three proper positions within every full rotation.
Similarly, proper, advantageous use of an implant incorporating the new design with the non concentric implant head (with just one cutout portion) requires a particular positioning of the implant head so that the cutout is always directed toward the area with reduced bone volume. Many times that would be towards the buccal. It will be appreciated that this particular positioning allows for non symmetry in the location and angulation of the abutment connection and its screw relative to the implant, as described above.
It should be noted that since the non concentric implant and the screw access are directionally confined, it is no longer necessary to adhere to rotational symmetry in the connection. Instead, the connection and the top surface of the implant could be made to suit the particular needs of such implant-abutment pair better than the conventional types of implant-abutment connections. Three exemplary instances of such a connection, having different features for receiving complementary features on the abutment, are depicted in
A further advantage of the implants of the present invention is illustrated schematically in
It will be appreciated that the above descriptions are intended only to serve as examples and that many other embodiments are possible and encompassed within the spirit and the scope of the present invention. The implants described herein and illustrated in the figures are examples only. Implants embodying other variations of the structures described here are within the scope of the present invention.
While the invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments, it will be appreciated that many variations, modifications and other applications of the invention may be made. It will further be appreciated that the invention is not limited to what has been described hereinabove merely by way of example. Rather, the invention is limited solely by the claims which follow.
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WO2012/164560 | 12/6/2012 | WO | A |
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