A histomorphometric and removal torque study of screw-shaped titanium implants with three different surface topographies.

Screw-shaped implants with 3 different surface topographies, evidenced visually as well as numerically with an optical profilometer, were inserted in rabbit bone. After a healing period of 12 weeks, a statistically significant higher removal torque was needed to unscrew screws blasted with 25-microns TiO2 particles and screws blasted with 75-microns particles of AI2O3 compared with screws with a turned surface. The histomorphometric evaluation demonstrated a higher percentage of bone-to-metal contact for implants blasted with 25-microns particles of TiO2 compared with the as-machined implants. A greater surface area of bone in threads was found for the turned screws compared with screws blasted with 25-microns TiO2 particles. In the short-term follow-up, there was a better fixation of implants with an average surface roughness of 0.9-1.3-microns and with a homogeneous surface structure than of implants with an average surface roughness of 0.4 microns and with a clear direction of the surface pattern.