[Isotopy and multicorticality: two fundamental principles]

Starting out from Oral Implantology pioneers, the Author comes down to the present situation, in an effort to show which values should be considered as the true ones. "Nothing new under the skies" is the Author's comment, when he examines all the techniques and materials presented as "new" for commercial purposes, whereas they are not new at all. To prove his statements he goes back to the work of some implantology pioneers, such as Formiggini, Perron Andrès, Cherchève, Strock, Pasqualini, Muratori, Tramonte, Linkow and others. In going over their most remarkable techniques, he maintains that what is being proposed nowadays as brand new was actually done long ago. Only names are now different: the process now called fibrous osseointegration used to be named osteofibrosis, and what is now called osseointegration was known as complete ossification. In order to remove the great confusion now prevailing in the dozens of implant systems, as well as in implant philosophy itself, the Author maintains that good implantologists should follow two fundamental principles: 1) implants should be built in a great variety of sizes, in order to take full advantage of cortical bones. They should be multicortical, generally quadricortical, since they should rest on the sinus floor cortical bone, on the alveolar ridge, the palatal and the buccal cortical bones (this is true for the elements implanted in the upper arch and in the front-mesial arch).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)