Improved osseointegration in ion implantation-treated dental implants

Implants for knee, hip and dental part replacement are becoming increasingly used in surgery Unfortunately, their use is sometimes accompanied by failure due to infection, inflammation, integration problems with the surrounding tissues or bone, and implant failure due to mishandling. Surface treatment, such as ion implantation, has been identified as a good candidate to modify the surface properties of the implant to significantly improve its osseointegration. This work reports on the ion implantation of light ions in commercial Ti6Al4V dental implants and subsequent osseointegration tests. Various light ions were implanted W, N, CO, NO with energy ranging from 45 to 100 keV and doses up to 5 X 10(17) ions/cm(2). Both ion-implanted and control dental implants were inserted in the tibial plateau of adult rabbits, the epiphysis and diaphysis of the tibia for the evaluation of their degree of osseointegration. After 3 months the implants were extracted and several histological sections were prepared from whole bones for evaluation of their osseointegration in the tibia. In addition, the surface of the implant, and the interface between the bone and the implant were examined by scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy-dispersive spectroscopy (EDS) and Xray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) techniques. Some ion implantation treatments did not significantly change the performance of the dental implants relative to the untreated implants, while tests showed that the ion implantation of CO remarkably improved the osseointegration properties, i.e. the percentage of bone and implant in contact. (C) 2002 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.