RECOGNITION. Per-Ingvar Brånemark has now been officially inducted into the American National Inventors Hall of Fame. His wife, Barbro Brånemark recently accepted his medal during a festive event in Washington DC, USA.
Per-Ingvar Brånemark discovered and developed the modern dental implant. He based this invention on his discovery that the element titanium can be integrated with bone tissue through osseointegration, a term that he also coined. Osseointegration means that when a titanium implant heals; bone cells grow together with the implant’s surface without any intermediate tissue layer.
Per-Ingvar Brånemark passed away two years ago; but his wife, Barbro Brånemark, who worked very closely with her husband for 40 years, attended the induction ceremony that was held at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and the National Portrait Gallery, in Washington DC, on his behalf, “The banquet was well organized, and the ceremony very elegant and reverent. It really was an honor to be there and represent Per-Ingvar,” says Barbro Brånemark, who believes that her husband would have appreciated being inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame,
“He was extremely happy when he was awarded the European Inventor Award, in 2011. I almost think he would have been even more pleased at having received this recognition from the USA.”
It was Per-Ingvar Brånemark, who surgically implanted titanium screws into the jaw of the first patient, in 1965. Since then, his discovery has had a major impact, not just on oral implants, but also on bone anchored prostheses, in other areas of the body.
“I have seen the estimates on how many implants are performed each year and how much money they generate; the amount is enormous. But, for Per-Ingvar, the patient was always most important. And that titanium implants have helped such an incredible number of people,” says Barbro Brånemark.
In total, there were 16 new inventors, from all over the world, who were inducted into the National Inventors Hall of Fame. Half of them had the medals placed around their necks and held a short speech during the ceremony. For those inventors who had been inducted posthumously, a representative received the medal affixed to an elegant frame.
Per-Ingvar Brånemark and his invention have now become a part of the permanent exhibition at the National Inventors Hall of Fame museum. In addition to photos and texts, the stand for Per-Ingvar Brånemark also contains titanium fixtures and a dental bridge in a plaster model, lit up in a special little compartment.
The National Inventors Hall of Fame was founded in 1973 and the administrative section lies in the city of Alexandria, in Virginia, located in the United States Patent and Trademark Office campus. Persons who are inducted must have a USA patent for an invention that has made an major impact. Per-Ingvar Brånemark is the sixth Swede to have been inducted, and has now joined the ranks of Alfred Nobel (dynamite), Nils Bohlin (three-point seatbelt), John Ericsson (hot air engine and screw propeller), Gideon Sundbäck (zipper) and Ernst Alexandersson (a pioneer in radio development).
