Impact of Sandblasting and Plasma Electrolytic Oxidation on Surface Quality of Dental Implants.

Titanium alloys have high biocompatibility, and, therefore, they are widely used in the production of implantable medical devices. Implants, in turn, must have certain surface properties for a positive osseointegration. To improve biocompatibility, as well as cell viability, numerous implant surface modifications have been proposed in order to improve topography, roughness parameters, and surface layer chemical and phase compositions. The most common type of surface treatment for dental implants involves sandblasting with aluminum oxide Al₂O₃ (corundum). However, aluminum is not a biocompatible element, and it can contribute to development of various diseases. Currently, the method of plasma electrolytic oxidation is being actively developed to ensure formation of a biocompatible TiO₂-based oxide coating on the surface of titanium implants. The aim of the study was to establish the residual aluminum content in the surface layer of dental implants after sandblasting and subsequent plasma electrolytic oxidation to justify the effective process sequence in serial production of dental implants.

Materials and methods: The research was conducted to establish the residual content of aluminum in the surface layer of the NCTi implant subjected to two surface treatment methods: sandblasting and plasma electrolytic oxidation following the sandblasting.

Results: Sandblasting with Al₂O₃ particles leads to fixation of such particles with Al weight fraction of 2.67±0.79% in the surface layer of the implant. Treatment of a dental implant using plasma electrolytic oxidation helps to reduce the Al weight fraction in the surface layer to 0.33±0.08% and significantly improves the implant corrosion resistance with a decrease in corrosion currents by an order of magnitude.