Laser treatment of dental implants towards an optimizedosseointegration: evaluation via TM-AFM and SEM
Surface modifications of dental implants play a crucial role for material stability, durability and patient contentment;hence optimization of the commonly used techniques can have significant impact. Surface properties affect the osseointegration of implants;however, thesurface for the optimal osseointegration is still being researched.Herein the surface roughnessand topography of dental implant screws afterpolishing, sandblasting and laser-treatmentvia tapping-mode atomic force microscopy(TM-AFM)are investigated. The measurements were performed at the implants’shank,crest and root sites and evaluated for surface roughness, kurtosis and skew values. Laser-treated and sandblasted samples havea significantly higher roughness compared to the machined sample. The roughness at the root of the samples was higher in case of the laser-treatedand machined samples, while lower forthe sandblasted implant. It was found that laser-treatment leads toaroughness lower than that ofsandblasted dental screwsbut significantly higher than that of mechanically polished implants.Differences in the roughness at different topological sites show the need for more precise treatment of implants in order to optimize the roughness.
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