Dental implant materials. II. Preparative procedures and surface spectroscopic studies.

The tissue response to an implant may involve both physical and chemical factors. There is little reliable information on the effects of these parameters and the associated ionic release on the cell-material interaction because the majority of studies have not fully characterized the implant material. In this work surface spectroscopy using ISS, ESCA, and SIMS was carried out on Ti6A14V, Co-Cr-Mo, A12O3, and hydroxyapatite dental implant materials that had been subjected to six commonly used preparative procedures. The results showed that each procedure generated an individualistic composition for the outermost surface of each material. These differences could be significant in cellular and tissue response. Improved understanding of these factors requires defined and reproducible surfaces.