A Comparison of the Biocompatibility of Titanium-Base Alloy According to Surface Treatments

Song, Hyun Seok; Kim, Yong Sik; Kwon, Sun Yong; Kim, Ryul; Choi, Nam Yong

Abstract

PURPOSE
Various surface treatments are developed and adopted to get a biological fixation by the osseointegration. An anodizing treatment, used on the surface treatment of aluminium, is applied to the surface treatment of the dental implant recently. The purpose of this study was to determine the biocompatibility and osseointegration of the titanium-base alloys according to 4 different surface treatments.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
Cylindrical rods were made of titanium-base alloys, and treated with machining, grit-blasted, anodizing, and plasma spray as four groups. The rods were implanted into the femur of the 8 adult dogs. Two dogs were allocated as controls. At the postoperative 1month and 9months, the histological and push-out test was done.
RESULTS
No specific systemic reactions in terms of complete blood cell count, blood chemistry, urinalysis were observed. There were no tissue necrosis, foreign body reaction, and inflammatory response to the implanted rods on the histological findings. A load-displacement curve was recorded to compare an interfacial shear strength between bone and metal, the values of the grit-blasted, anodizing, and plasma-spray groups were larger than that of machining group (p<0.05). The interfacial shear strength of the plasma spray group was significantly larger than other group, but was not significantly different from that of the anodizing group (p>0.05).
CONCLUSION
The surface treatment with anodizing would be options for artificial joint because of its lower manufacturing price and excellent biomechanical and osseointegration nature.