The History of Osseointegration

The origins of Osseointegration go back to the early 1950’s when the Swedish professor, Per-Ingvar Brånemark first began conducting experimenting with titanium implant chambers to study blood flow in rabbit bone. He discovered that the bone had integrated so completely with the implant that the chamber could not be removed. Brånemark called the discovery "Osseointegration.”

In the mid 1960’s, he began his first very successful experiments on humans. Indeed, his first patient went on to live another 40 years with the original implants still in place and functioning well.

At first very few fellow scientists took Brånemark very seriously and there was little acceptance of osseointegration as a viable treatment. In Sweden he was even openly ridiculed at scientific conferences.

Eventually an emerging breed of young academics started to notice the work being performed in Sweden and at a Toronto Conference in 1983 the worldwide scientific community finally began accepting Brånemark's work.

Today osseointegration is a highly predictable and commonplace treatment.