Mayan Dental Implants

[Iggy Dalrymple]

The Mayan civilization has been shown to have used the earliest known examples of endosseous implants (implants embedded into bone), dating back over 1,350 years before Per Brånemark started working with titanium. While excavating Mayan burial sites in Honduras in 1931, archaeologists found a fragment of mandible of Mayan origin, dating from about 600 AD. This mandible, which is considered to be that of a woman in her twenties, had three tooth-shaped pieces of shell placed into the sockets of three missing lower incisor teeth. For forty years the archaeological world considered that these shells were placed under the nose in a manner also observed in the ancient Egyptians. However, in 1970 a Brazilian dental academic, Professor Amadeo Bobbio studied the mandibular specimen and took a series of radiographs. He noted compact bone formation around two of the implants which led him to conclude that the implants were placed during life.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_implant

[scorpiotiger]

this is very interesting, Iggy. I printed out a copy to show my friend. her daughter is a dentist.

[Homeopathy Now]

Thats quite extraordinary - particularly in that region of the world, in a humid jungle environment, where infection takes hold so very easily.

[RCannon]

Wonder why they don't use ceramic implants. I wonder if titanium has any ill effects.

[Trevor75]

Ya but the implants are only good till 2012 A.D. right? ;-P