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implants - international magazine of oral implantology

I obituary _On December 20, 2014, Per-Ingvar Brånemark diedafteraperiodofextendedillnessinhishometown of Gothenburg, Sweden. Without the work of Per-Ingvar Brånemark, the world might still be awaiting the advent of titanium implants. His observation, in the midtwentieth cen- tury, that the human body would not only tolerate ti- tanium, but even integrate it into living bone tissue (undercarefullycontrolledconditions)revolutionised the fields of dental, maxillofacial and orthopaedic re- habilitation. Based on his original scientific insight— subsequently substantiated and rigorously docu- mented—innovativebone-anchoredrestorativesolu- tionshaveimprovedthequalityofmillionsofpeople’s lives around the world since then. _Choosing the right path Students of science say that luck combined with unique circumstances often dictate the direction in whichanyresearchprojectultimatelyturns.Noonewas moreawareofthisthanPer-IngvarBrånemark. As a young researcher in his native Sweden in the 1950s, he was interested in neither titanium nor im- plants. He was working instead to advance the world’s knowledge of the anatomy of blood flow, and found himselfusinganopticaldevicethathappenedtobeen- closedinmachinedtitanium.Attachedtoarabbit’sleg, this device made it possible for him to study microcir- culation in the bone tissue of rabbits through specially modified light microscopes. When it came time to re- The man who made people smile Author_Frederic Love 46 I implants1_2015

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