Osteointegration of HA-coated subperiosteal dental implants: Preliminary work

Abstract

The effectiveness of dental implants is largely dependent upon the biostability and osteointegration of the bone-implant interface. Examination of HA-coated subperiosteal dental explants may provide insight into the quality of the bone-coating attachment. The goals of the present study were to characterize osteointegration near the interface of three retrieved devices using nanoindentation and study the variability in hardness and elastic modulus as a function of distance from the bone-implant interface. The nanoindentation tests resulted in different trends for each patient. No consistent differences were seen comparing the modulus and hardness of bone near the interface (<100μm) to locations that were distant from the implant interface (>100 μm). As a result, we could not conclude how the HA coatings affected bone quality around the subperiosteal implants. Ongoing efforts are directed at improving specimen preparation technique to reduce errors due to surface roughness and lamellar orientation. Histomorphometric analysis will be done in order to study the differences in bone quantities among patients. © 2009 Springer Berlin Heidelberg.