The biomaterial-tissue interface: a morphological study utilizing conventional and alternative ultrastructural modalities.

The interface between oral tissues and ceramic endosteal dental implants was investigated in 36 experimental cases in dog jaws. Conventional electron microscopic modalities showed those tissues adjacent to the implants to be viable with no adverse cellular response to the biomaterial. A procedure to retrieve additional ultrastructural data from previously processed biological material was developed to expand upon these data. This included surface-etching with oxygen plasma of routinely processed electron microscopy specimens and formalin fixed histological specimens for scanning electron microscopy (SEM) study; and, cryofracturing of similar histological specimens for additional transmission electron microscopic (TEM) analysis. Results from these alternative protocols supported our observations from conventional studies of the direct association of bone and epithelia to the implant. In addition, they demonstrated a unique portrayal of the epithelial maturation patterns. Further, this alternative TEM method showed excellent retention of cellular integrity and demonstrated a hemidesmosomal-external basal lamina attachment apparatus at the junctional epithelial-implant interface. This latter composite attachment structure was not retained in our previous conventional microdissection procedures. Thus, the interface between oral tissues and the single crystal sapphire endosteal dental implant could be elucidated by these protocols.