Structural/biological implant system

Abstract

A structural / biological implant and method of use. The implant being utilized as a single or multiple staged system that is designed to encourage new alveolar bone growth with or without the need to obtain autologous bone. The implant has an apical portion that is fastened into existing bone, with the remainder of the implant left outside of existing bone. The exposed portion of the implant may have an external shape or configuration with a variety of attached and / or integrally formed mechanical retention and stability elements. Osteotropic / angiotropic material may be associated with the implant to induce and or conduct new bone growth and possible vascularization, thus, rather than fitting the implant into the bone, the bone is grown integratively with the implant. The osteotropic / angiotropic materials may be simultaneously placed with the staged implant to provide consistent stabilization for the materials and to provide an immediately available surface for bone cell adhesion and growth. The invention thus allows implants to be used in location where the volume and / or shape of the bone would not be adequate for existing implant systems.

Description

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS [0001] This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60 / 478,705, filed Jun. 13, 2003, the content of which is incorporated by reference in their entirety.STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT [0002] This invention was made with Government support under Grant No. DE14187 awarded by the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research. The Government has certain rights in the invention.FIELD OF THE INVENTION [0003] This invention relates generally to a structural / biological implant and method for encouraging bone growth with or without use of graft materials which may include autogenous bone, autologous or engineered cells, mineralized materials, demineralized bone matrix, alginates, collagen materials, and articles useful therein. BACKGROUND OF INVENTION [0004] Inadequate bone volume is a well recognized problem in the craniofacial and orthopedic fields. For example, ordinarily, a dental...

AI Technical Summary

Benefits of technology

[0009] Generally, a portion of the implant is fastened into existing bone, with the remainder of the implant extending outside of existing bone. The extending or exposed portion of the implant has an osteointegrative surface which may include an external shape or configuration including at least one of a variety of attached and / or integrally formed mechanical retention and stability elements. New bone growth occurs around the exposed portion of the implant thereby increasing bone height and volume in the patient.

Problems solved by technology

Inadequate bone volume is a well recognized problem in the craniofacial and orthopedic fields.

In a large proportion of clinical cases, there is inadequate bone height and / or width for the placement of standard endosseous dental implants.

Unfortunately, bone resorbs after tooth loss.

Due to this continued bone loss, a substantial segment of the population has insufficient bone volume to benefit from implant placement.

Current bone graft methods include painful, invasive and sometimes hazardous or prolonged procedures generally requiring an extensive donor site at locations such as the rib, hip or leg bone or blocks of bone from the jaw.

However, at present there are significant limitations to the dimensions (especially thickness) of material that can be implanted due to issues involving extra-cellular transport of metabolites and products; the lifetime and effective diffusion distance and presentation timing of signaling moieties; and the multitude of support functions provided by a properly distributed vasculature.

Thus, for example, many tissue-engineered products are limited to thicknesses of two to three millimeters, likely an inadequate dimension to be clinically meaningful in one surgical step.

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