I have been placing ceramic implants for nearly 10 years. At the beginning patients were not asking me for ceramic implants, in fact at the beginning of my implant career I didn’t even know that anything but titanium osseointegrated.
I started placing the ceramic implants because I saw something that could help me in avoiding mechanical problems and something that I believed was better. To this day I find in my cases soft tissue that I was hard pressed to find around my titanium cases.
Through the years I found that there are a number of types of people that are looking for ceramic implants to replace their missing or soon to be missing teeth.
The first is the holistic patients. They are looking for a natural metal free replacement for their teeth. The wish for ceramic stems from the fact that it is non metallic. It’s the same drive that pushes them towards composite resin fillings and all ceramic crowns rather than amalgam and PBM crowns. They are very educated and usually in the care of a team of naturopaths and homeopaths that try to concentrate on non-western treatments.
At the beginning they formed a big group of patients that found us.
Another group is the group that has various sensitivities. These patients have had issues with metals in the past in the form of allergies or reactions, they are looking for any alternative and ceramic implants offer just that. We know that the true allergy to titanium is rather rare, but the metallic components of modern day titanium alloy implants are numerous. Many implants have various amounts of other metals such as vanadium, aluminum, nickel etc. Patients with some sensitivities to these and other metals want materials to be implanted that will avoid future reactions.
Finally and by far the largest group of those seeking ceramic implants are those patients whose friends and family have had ceramic implants. Those patients that researched on dr. “google” and found that there are options to traditional implants and that we were able to give them these results with non traditional non metallic solutions.
Today we have patients from all over North America coming to us for ceramic implants as they understand that we have the options that others do not. WIth ceramic implants now comprising about 1-2% of the global implant market we are still at the infancy of this evolution. Most implant manufacturers have a ceramic implant product or have one on the pipeline. I am sure patients will be coming to you asking for them too!
