Extraction and immediate placement of root analogue zirconia implants: an overview

Dental implants constitute a well-established approach for replacement of lost teeth with titanium being the most favored material for implantation. However, titanium has its limitations in esthetically demanding cases and neither the form nor material of such implants has changed much over the past 40 years. Immediate implantation has been introduced to overcome the disadvantages of conventional implantation which in turn has many disadvantages owing to the incongruence of the implant to the extraction socket. Today, there is scientific evidence that zirconia dental implants osseointegrate well and offer many advantages over titanium implants. The successful use of zirconia ceramics in orthopedic surgery led to a demand for dental zirconium-based implant systems. Because of its excellent biomechanical characteristics, biocompatibility, and bright tooth-like color, zirconia (zirconium dioxide, ZrO2) has the potential to become a substitute for titanium as dental implant material. In addition, there are previous reports on the successful use of Zirconia as root-analogue implants by reproducing the contours of the extracted tooth. This article presents an overview of the technique of using root analogue zirconia dental implants as an immediate implantation material which are replicas of the extracted tooth and therefore truly anatomical and socket friendly.