Romanian team devises dental implant with unique natural-like mobility

Two researchers from Cluj Napoca have been working together for several years on the design of a dental implant that copies the mobility of a natural tooth.
Dentist Manea Avram and Professor Dumitru Pop from the Department of Mechanical Systems Engineering of the Cluj Napoca Technical University have managed, through cooperation that transgresses the boundaries of separate sciences, to achieve a solution the literature of dental medicine had been requesting for long.
The project of the two is called ‘Experimental dental implant that reproduces the physiological mobility of the teeth’ and is the result of hard work performed since 2011 and which is to continue. The two researchers explained that although the idea is not new and other attempts have been made to implement it, no other valid implant models with near physiological mobility are known.
The implant invented by the two Cluj-based researchers has an appearance highly similar with other concepts and is basically made of the customary specific titanium alloy – but it’s its inner structure that differs. Basically, the physiological mobility is the result of a new tooth scheme, but also of an elastic material that allows longitudinal and lateral micromovement.
The invention has been registered, patented and even awarded, but has still a long time to go until its release on the market, requiring further costly research, which is likely to last another few years. Doctor Manea Avram hopes to win some scientific research grants in order to continue his work which would require intensive testing. Regarding the cost of the implant when it will be released on the market, Professor Dumitru Pop said it will definitely be more expensive than the solutions already in use because of the special material it incorporates.