Detection times of natural teeth and endosseous implants revealed by the method of reaction time

Reaction times were employed to assess whether implants have longer detection times than natural teeth. A soft push was applied to an endosseous implant or to the corresponding natural tooth. Patients were asked for a speeded manual response upon the detection of the push. The temporal interval from the onset of the push to the onset of the manual response denoted the reaction time. This measure was only slightly longer for endosseous implants than for natural teeth, indicating that an implant's ability to detect rapid load changes is almost unimpaired.