Astra Dental Implants,
from AstraTech in Sweden

I worked with AstraTech dental implants for over 5 years, and went to several AstraTech courses in Sweden, as well as the Astra World Congress in New York. Here's what I learned about them!

Astra dental implants are among the BEST in the world.

They are made by swedish company AstraTech, originally part of the big AstraZeneca group. AstraTech produced its first dental implants in 1985, over 30 years ago! AstraZeneca was originally a pharmaceutical group.

They developed and tested new drugs to see what they could do, and if they were safe. In order to get official approval for the small minority of drugs that showed promise, they had to document and record every single test and experiment. They documented all their research to pharmaceutical industry standards.

So, when it came to researching and developing dental implants, they recorded and documented their research in the same way they always did for pharmaceutical products.

No other firm did this at that time. This means that AstraTech now has the longest and best documented research for dental implants of any company in the world.What does this mean for YOU?

Astra Dental Implants from AstraTech

It means that you can be confident about the quality of the implant you are getting.

With over 30 years of research and experience, Astra implants are extremely safe and long-lasting. They have a success rate of 98% to 100%, higher than any other company. AND they have the documented research to prove it!

Like a lot of dental implant companies, Astra offers training to dentists in how to use their products. There are courses in the surgical aspects of placing the implants, and also for how to put the crowns and bridges ONTO the implants, to give you the teeth you want!

I personally attended one of their courses in Gothenberg, Sweden in 2006. I was very impressed with the quality of the training, and also with the implant design and research!

Astra has done a LOT of research into dental implant design. They have come up with a number of innovations and hold a lot of patents to do with implant design. Some of these have improved the speed at which implants heal.

The implants come in various designs depending on the needs of the patient.

The Astra Tech Implant System has four unique features, together they are called the BioManagement Complex –

• OsseoSpeed,
  
• MicroThread,
  
• Conical Seal Design
  
• and Connective Contour.

Dental implants must be developed to mechanically stimulate the surrounding bone in order to preserve it. The implants have a special surface treatment, called the OsseoSpeed® surface, where a blasting process is followed by an ion-fluoride treatment that stimulates early bone healing and speeds up the bone healing process.

The result of the micro-roughened titanium surface treated with fluoride is increased bone formation and stronger bone-to-implant bonding. The clinical benefits of the OsseoSpeed surface are proven and well documented.

Other innovations support the gum and bone around the implant - the precise conical connection angle and configuration of the screw threads at the upper part of the implant called MicroThread™.

This also helps to keep the gum line at the desired original level, instead of shrinking back and exposing the metallic implant surface. The Conical Seal Design™ and Connective Contour™ also preserve and protect the important marginal bone, and also seals off the inside of the implant, providing a more reliable and effective dental implant treatment.

The evolution of Astra implants

Astra Dental Implants

The components of the Astratech Profile system

The implant is always packed in special sterile packaging, and needs several items of surgical equipment and instruments to be placed correctly in the jaw bone. Plus the skill and training of the dental surgeon! Dental implant surgery is really a branch of orthopaedic surgery.

The sterile packaging of the Astra implant

Below you can see how the sterile Astra implant is retrieved (or 'picked up') from the sterile packaging without contamination at the time of surgery.

Sterile pickup method

Below is a photo of two Astra dental implant replicas mounted in a laboratory model, with impression "pick-ups" being fitted.

Astra implants on a laboratory model

Overall, AstraTech implants are a true quality product with bucketloads of powerful research behind them. If your dentist is using Astra implants, you know you're getting the best.

American dental company Dentsply certainly thought so - they paid $1.8 billion for AstraTech in 2011 !

A merger between DENTSPLY and Sirona took place in 2016, and today the AstraTech Implant System is part of the world´s largest dental company – Dentsply Sirona.

A dental implant can costs several hundred dollars. [note from Dentsply Sirona: the cost of an implant varies from country to country, and the implant is only a small part of the implant treatment, as a complete implant treatment also includes the cost and services of a dentist/clinic]

I'd have to warn you though - the dental implant market is fiercely competitive. If your dentist is using a different brand of implant, it doesn't necessarily mean you're getting worse quality. You could be getting something equally good, perhaps from Straumann or Bicon.

But what I like particularly about Astra dental implants is the LONG track record of research and development. They really have done their homework, and EVERY little thing about their implant design has a reason.

Astra Premium implant system

NOTE

The factual information about the Astra Tech Implant System on this page has been reviewed by Dentsply Sirona to make sure that the company and the products are correctly described. Opinions and other information, such as costs, are solely the author’s.

Updated 2023.

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