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Fatigue Life of Bioactive Titanium Dental Implants Treated by Means of Grit‐Blasting and Thermo‐Chemical Treatment
Author(s) -
Gil F. Javier,
Espinar Eduardo,
Llamas Jose Maria,
Sevilla Pablo
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
clinical implant dentistry and related research
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.338
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1708-8208
pISSN - 1523-0899
DOI - 10.1111/j.1708-8208.2012.00468.x
Subject(s) - materials science , titanium , dental implant , coating , residual stress , nucleation , grit , composite material , surface modification , rock blasting , metallurgy , implant , medicine , chemical engineering , chemistry , surgery , psychology , developmental psychology , organic chemistry , engineering , geotechnical engineering
Objective: This study focuses on the fatigue behavior of titanium dental implants as‐received, with a grit‐blasted surface and with a new bioactive surface treatment (2Steps). Background: The 2Step process consists of (1) an initial grit‐blasting process to produce a micro‐rough surface, followed by (2) a combined thermo‐chemical treatment that produces a potentially bioactive surface, that is, that can form an apatitic layer when exposed to biomimetic conditions in vitro. The 2Step treatment produced micro‐rough and apatitic coating implants. Methods: Residual stresses were determined by means of X‐ray diffraction. The fatigue tests were carried out at 37°C on 500 dental implants, and the S‐N curve was determined. The fatigue‐crack nucleation for the different treatments was analyzed. Results: The fatigue tests show that the grit‐blasting process improves the fatigue life. This is a consequence of the layer of compressive residual stresses that the treatment generates in titanium surfaces. Dental implants that had its surfaced prepared with the 2Step procedure (grit‐blasting and thermo‐chemical treatment) had its fatigue life decreased by 10% due to the incorporation of oxygen to the surface and the relaxation of the compressive residual stress produced by the heat treatment. Conclusions: Thermo‐chemical treatment is an excellent compromise between the improvement of bioactive and mechanical long‐life behaviors.