Osseointegration of endodontic endosseous cones - Zirconium oxide vs titanium

Objective. The purpose of this investigation was to investigate the osseoin tegration of zirconium oxide (ZrO2) ceramic cones in comparison with that o f titanium cones in apicectomy. Study design. To evaluate the bone/implant interface, 20 ZrO2 cones and 20 titanium cones were inserted into the mandibles of 4 Gottinger minipigs, Du ring the 6-month healing period, intravital polychrome sequence marking was performed. Qualitative light microscopic, fluorescence microscopic, and qu antitative histomorphometric assessment was carried out. Differences betwee n continuous histomorphometric measures were tested through use of a 2-way analysis of variance. Results. Light microscopy revealed zones of direct bone contact with the Zr O2 and titanium surfaces. Fluorescence microscopy revealed remodeling proce sses directly adjacent to both material surfaces. There was no significant difference in the distances of the fluorescence bands of each fluorescence marker for either the ZrO2 surfaces or the titanium surfaces. Quantitativel y and histomorphometrically, the mean ratio between the total cone/bone con tact and the total cone/fibrous tissue contact was 0.95 (SD 1.10) on the ti tanium surface (n = 38) and 1.47 (SD 1.12) on the ZrO2 surface (n = 78; P = .02). Conclusions. The qualitative results show that the biocompatibility of ZrO2 was similar to that of titanium. The use of ZrO2 cones for sealing purpose s in resected teeth after apicectomy appears to joe acceptable.