Fibrous carbon implants for the maintenance of bone volume after tooth avulsion: first clinical results.

When the avulsion of the last teeth of a patient is necessary, we propose to maintain the bone mass in order to improve the prosthetic conditions. For this purpose, we use fibrous carbon which is a biocompatible material well tolerated by the surrounding tissues. The results are reported of 10 yr of clinical use of fibrous carbon roots implanted in 38 alveoli of 26 patients with a mean follow-up of 34 month. There were 26 accepted artificial roots and 12 failures. The causes of failure are principally: (1) absent external bone wall near implanted alveoli (presence of the four bone walls is necessary); (2) existing local inflammation near implant site area.