Chemical and topographical surface analysis of five different implant abutments

The surface characteristics of the dental implant abutment which penetrates through the gingival mucosa and is exposed to the oral cavity play an impo rtant role not only for the biocompatibility but also for the bacterial adh esion and stagnation. The purpose of this study was to investigate the surf ace characteristics of 5 commercially available implant abutments which wer e Branemark (Nobel Biocare, Gothenburg, Sweden), Astra (AstraTech, Molndal, Sweden), IMZ (Friatec, Mannheim, Germany), STERI-OSS (Denar, CA, USA) and POI (Kyocera, Kyoto, Japan). The three dimensional imaging and analysis of the surface topography were carried out using a confocal laser scanning pro filometer (TopScan 3D). The chemical composition of abutment surfaces was a nalyzed by huger Electron Spectroscopy (AES). The results indicated that qu ite different surface features were shown in three dimensional images. Thes e features reflected roughness parameters. S-a and S-cx values of these abu tments in mu m were Branemark (0.23+/-0.09, 7.76+/-0.64), Astra (0.23+/-0.0 5, 7.92+/-0.25), IMZ (0.18+/-0.03, 7.76+/-0.80), STERI-OSS (0.15+/-0.01, 10 .22+/-0.90) and POI (0.24+/-0.01, 8.08+/-0.77), respectively. The chemical elemental analysis showed all specimens to have thin titanium oxide layers (approximately 4 to 7 nm) except POI which is anodized titanium alloy, henc e it has rather a thick oxide layer (95 to 110 nm). Some minor elemental tr aces (S, Si and P) were also seen on the outermost layer. The specimens whi ch were investigated in this study varied in their topography and elemental composition. These variations were strongly due to the manufacturing proce sses which were milling, polishing, cleaning and sometimes oxidation method s.