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HAIFA, Israel: An examination of 100 biologically failed dental implants has found that more than 60 per cent of these implants showed signs of mechanical flaws, such as crack-like defects and full cracks. In publicising these results, the researchers aim to encourage dental implant manufacturers and dentists to find ways to reduce the structural damage that occurs when a metal is subject to repeated applied loads.
In the study, the researchers examined 100 discarded dental implants, which had been extracted owing to peri-implantitis, made of a titanium alloy and commercially pure titanium using energy dispersive X-ray analysis and scanning electron microscopy. They found mechanical defects in 62 per cent of the specimens. In addition, the inspection showed that the pure titanium implants had more cracks than did the titanium alloy implants.
“Embedded particles appear to be linked to the generation of surface defects that evolve into full cracks,” Dr Keren Shemtov-Yona, a dental researcher at the Technion—Israel Institute of Technology, who conducted the study as part of her Master of Science degree. Furthermore, the wear and tear of daily use may also contribute towards the potential of manufacturing flaws to develop into cracks and subsequently lead to failure of the material, the researchers stated. It was also found that the width and length of the different implants in this study were not correlated with the observed defects.
Shemtov-Yona is now aiming to conduct further studies to investigate the reasons for the development of cracks to determine whether the causes lie in manufacturing, use or both.
The study, titled “On the mechanical integrity of retrieved dental implants”, was published in the September issue Journal of the Mechanical Behavior of Biomedical Materials.
