Quantification of dental implant surface wear and topographical modification generated during insertion

Titanium dental implants are subjected to frictional stresses during insertion, which may lead to surface wear and modification of original surface topography. The main goal of this study was to comprehensively quantify the wear and topographical modification of dental implants suffered during insertion procedure. Two commercially available dental implant systems with differing topographies: acid etched (AE) and sandblasted+acid etched (SB) were analysed as real case studies. Different regions of the implants (neck, valley, top, flank) were monitored qualitative and quantitatively both before and after insertion in fresh cow rib bone. Wear and plastic deformation mechanisms were identified at the surfaces of the post-inserted implants. The wear mass loss was approximated by the functional volume parameter (V_m) variation analysis resulting in a total average of 36.5 and 1 μg of released particles for the AE and SB implants respectively. The developed interfacial ratio (S_dr) variation correlated positively with the material volume variation (V_m) and is considered the best damage indicator. This study quantified, for the first time, the wear and topographical modifications generated at different sites of dental implants, and illustrates the need to analyse different regions to correctly understand and quantify the effects of the insertion process on dental implant surfaces.