Zirconia vs. Titanium dental implants: Primary stability in-vitro analysis

Abstract

The present experimental trial uses two types of dental implants, one made of titanium (Ti6Al4V) and the other one of zirconia (ZrO2), but both of identical design, to compare their stability and micro-movements values under load. One of each type of implant (n = 42) was placed into 21 cow ribs, recording the insertion torque and the resonance frequency using a specific transducer. Subsequently, a prosthetic crown made of PMMA was screwed onto each of the implants in the sample. They were then subjected to a static compression load on the vestibular cusp of the crown. The resulting micromovements were measured. The zirconia implants obtained a higher mean of both IT and RFA when compared with those of titanium, with statistically significant differences in both cases (p = 0.0483 and p = 0.0296). However, the micromovement values when load was applied were very similar for both types, with the differences between them (p = 0.3867) not found to be statistically significant. The results show that zirconia implants have higher implant stability values than titanium implants. However, the fact that there are no differences in micromobility values implies that caution should be exercised when applying clinical protocols for zirconia based on RFA, which only has evidence for titanium.