title: Development of a new quantitative gas permeability method for dental implant-abutment connection tightness assessment.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Most dental implant systems are presently made of two pieces: the implant itself and the abutment. The connection tightness between those two pieces is a key point to prevent bacterial proliferation, tissue inflammation and bone loss. The leak has been previously estimated by microbial, color tracer and endotoxin percolation.
  
  
  METHODS
  A new nitrogen flow technique was developed for implant-abutment connection leakage measurement, adapted from a recent, sensitive, reproducible and quantitative method used to assess endodontic sealing.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The results show very significant differences between various sealing and screwing conditions. The remaining flow was lower after key screwing compared to hand screwing (p = 0.03) and remained different from the negative test (p = 0.0004). The method reproducibility was very good, with a coefficient of variation of 1.29%.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Therefore, the presented new gas flow method appears to be a simple and robust method to compare different implant systems. It allows successive measures without disconnecting the abutment from the implant and should in particular be used to assess the behavior of the connection before and after mechanical stress.
authors.affiliation: Université Montpellier, France. jh.torres@univ-montp1.fr
authors.forename: Jacques-Henri
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Torres
authors.forename: Michael
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mechali
authors.forename: Olivier
authors.initials: O
authors.lastname: Romieu
authors.forename: Paul
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Tramini
authors.forename: Sylvie
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Callas
authors.forename: Frédéric Jg
authors.initials: FJ
authors.lastname: Cuisinier
authors.forename: Bernard
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Levallois
mesh_terms: D000044:Dental Abutments; D015921:Dental Implants; D003763:Dental Leakage; D019094:Dental Prosthesis, Implant-Supported; D003799:Dental Stress Analysis / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D013314:Stress, Mechanical
chemical_list: D015921:Dental Implants