Title: Dental implants in pediatric dentistry - To be burried or to blossom
Abstract:
Edentulism is usually associated with the aging patient. However, some children and adolescents have anodontia, partial anodontia, congenitally missing teeth and lost teeth as a result of trauma. The absence of teeth leads to loss of function and lack of normal alveolar growth, along with unpleasant esthetics that hamper the psychosocial development of the young child. In such cases, oral rehabilitation is required even before skeletal and dental maturation has occurred. Traditionally, the management of tooth loss in the young child is done by conservative means but none of those methods of treatment are completely satisfactory and have their own drawbacks. Dental implants for children are a new treatment modality and in a young child it would be an ideal mode of treatment for the absence of teeth. One of the main deterring factors for implant placement in children is the impending growth. Many authors have discussed the use of implants in children. Successful implant treatment in children has been achieved by several clinicians when they incorporated a multidisciplinary approach in their treatment plan. The design and type of implant system used in pediatric patients is also responsible for successful treatment outcome. Clinicians should have an understanding of the potential risks involved in placing implants in jaws that are still growing and consider the effect implants have on craniofacial growth. Dental implant insertion in pediatric and adolescent age group has been a debatable field of interest in rehabilitative pediatric dentistry
