A HISTOMORPHOMETRIC EVALUATION OF BONE-TO-IMPLANT CONTACT ON MACHINE-PREPARED AND ROUGHENED TITANIUM DENTAL IMPLANTS - A PILOT-STUDY IN THEDOG

This investigation was performed to assess the bone-to-implant surface contact at fixtures of titanium that either had a standard machine pr epared or a TiO2-blasted surface. Five beagle dogs were used in the ex periment. Extractions of the premolars were performed in the maxilla. After 4 months of healing, 5 standard machine-prepared fixtures and 5 prepared according to the TioBlast technique were inserted. Two months later another 5 ''standard'' and 5 TioBlast-prepared implants were in serted. Four months after the first fixture installation, the animals were killed and ground sections prepared from each implant site. Of th e 20 implants installed, 19 were successfully incorporated. The mean b one-to-implant surface for ''standard'' fixtures was about 40% both at the 2 and 4 months observation interval. The corresponding figures fo r the TioBlast-prepared fixtures were similar during the first 2 month s of observation, while subsequently the TioBlast-prepared fixture sur face seemed to stimulate to a mon close bone-to-implant contact (65%) than the ''standard'' one.