Denture Implants End Embarrassing Slips of the Tongue

SAN FRANCISCO —  Slipping, sliding and shifting dentures that cause pain and embarrassing speech difficulties one day may be a thing of the past, thanks to a procedure introduced by a Swedish doctor.

BIOTES, a surgical procedure that makes dentures permanent, was described by Dr. Per-Ingvar Branemark in San Francisco at the annual meeting of the American Dental Assn., which approved the technique for provisional use in the United States two months ago.

Branemark, a specialist in experimental surgery at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, said the procedure has been tested on 3,500 patients around the world since 1965.

Branemark said there are five BIOTES training centers in the United States and Canada and only about 100 dental professionals performing the technique. Another 500 dentists are on a list awaiting training.

In the surgery, the jaw’s soft tissue is opened to expose the bone, Branemark said. Small, screw-shaped pieces of titanium--a soft metal much like calcium--are then gently threaded through the bone in a process called osseointegration.

Takes About 3 Months

Once the pieces of metal, approximately 1 inch by 4 inches in size, are incorporated into the bone during the healing process, other small posts of titanium are attached to them.

“On these, we can put anything,” Branemark said. “Fixed dentures or a perfect bridge.”

The entire process takes about three months and may cost up to $9,000 per jaw, depending on the extent of the work done, he said. It takes four to six titanium implants in each jaw for a full set of dentures.

According to figures released by Branemark, 30 million American adults are toothless in one or both jaws and about 3 million are unable to wear dentures because of physiological or psychological reasons.

Branemark said studies on patients in the last 10 years show the success rate for the lower jaw is 99%. It drops to 95% for the upper jaw because it is more prone to resorption, a progressive disorder where the jawbone can become too small for dentures.