Dental implant and method for installing same

Claim 1

A dental implant adapted to be installed in a predrilled bore formed in jaw bone tissue for retaining a dental prosthesis, said implant comprising a generally cylindrical body defining a longitudinal axis, said body being open at a front end thereof and including a cylindrical front cavity communicating with said open front end for receiving a cylindrical bone core, said front cavity being surrounded by a front portion of said body, said front portion including a plurality of circumferentially and radially spaced through-holes extending radially completely therethrough to accommodate the growth of bone tissue therethrough, said body being open at a rear end thereof and including an internally threaded cylindrical rear cavity which communicates with said open rear end and adapts said rear cavity to receive externally threaded prosthesis-attachment means, said rear cavity being surrounded by a rear portion of said body, said rear portion being non-apertured, said front and rear portions of said body including front and rear outer peripheries, respectively, each of which including a plurality of outwardly projecting longitudinally spaced, circumferentially extending ribs, each rib lying in a plane extending transversely to said longitudinal axis, at least some of said ribs on said rear outer periphery surrounding said rear cavity, said ribs on said front and rear outer peripheries including outer surfaces of the same diameter to define a maximum outer diameter of said implant, at least some of said ribs including a front surface facing toward said front end and a rear surface facing toward said rear end, at least one of said front and rear surfaces being offset longitudinally relative to said outer periphery of said rib in a direction away from the respective implant end toward which said one surface faces in order to define an annular reservoir adapted to store blood adjacent to surrounding bone tissue.