The Evaluation of Titanium Shedding from Implants with Three Different Surface Textures

The purpose of this investigation was to assess the effect of implant surface treatment on titanium particle shedding as a measure for peri-implantitis potential following piezoelectric instrumentation. Three groups of five implants with different surface treatments were assessed: machined surface, sandblasted acid etched (SLA), and anodized. A piezoelectric scaler with a titanium tip was placed against the coronal one third of the body of the implant using 25 grams of force and cycled for 30 strokes. Water containing any titanium particulate was collected and stored in a centrifuge tube. One implant from each group was used as an active control. The collected water was centrifuged and evaporated. Particles were then re-suspended in a known volume of water (0.1 ml). Calculation of titanium particles was determined by pipetting a fixed volume (10 µl) of the standardized solution into a hemocytometer. The presence of titanium was confirmed via elemental analysis. All implants used within the experiment released titanium particles. The mean particle count for the anodized group was (11,333), machined group (8,333), and the SLA group (7,633). Tukey’s test revealed implants with the anodized surface released a statistically significant larger number of particles as compared to the SLA surface with a p-value = 0.0245. No statistically significant difference in particle count was noted between the SLA surface or the machined surface. There was no statistically significant difference between the machined and anodized surface, however, there was a trend toward a larger number of particles being produced in the anodized group. All implants in the active control group were also found to release modest amounts of particles anodized (933), machined (533), and SLA (866). The light microscope and scanning electron microscope revealed variations in the size of titanium particulate with particles as small as two microns being identified. Elemental analysis confirmed the presence of metallic particulate to be titanium particles. The results from this study suggest the anodized surface, when instrumented with a titanium piezoelectric tip, release a larger quantity of particles as compared to the SLA implant surface