title: Mechanical assessment of grit blasting surface treatments of dental implants.
abstract: This paper investigates the influence of surface preparation treatments of dental implants on their potential (mechanical) fatigue failure, with emphasis on grit-blasting. The investigation includes limited fatigue testing of implants, showing the relationship between fatigue life and surface damage condition. Those observations are corroborated by a detailed failure analysis of retrieved fracture dental implants. In both cases, the negative effect of embedded alumina particles related to the grit-blasting process is identified. The study also comprises a numerical simulation part of the grit blasting process that reveals, for a given implant material and particle size, the existence of a velocity threshold, below which the rough surface is obtained without damage, and beyond which the creation of significant surface damage will severely reduce the fatigue life, thus increasing fracture probability. The main outcome of this work is that the overall performance of dental implants comprises, in addition to the biological considerations, mechanical reliability aspects. Fatigue fracture is a central issue, and this study shows that uncontrolled surface roughening grit-blasting treatments can induce significant surface damage which accelerate fatigue fracture under certain conditions, even if those treatments are beneficial to the osseointegration process.
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, 32000 Haifa, Israel. Electronic address: kerenrst77@gmail.com.
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shemtov-Yona
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, 32000 Haifa, Israel.
authors.forename: D
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Rittel
authors.affiliation: Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Technion, Israel Institute of Technology, 32000 Haifa, Israel.
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Dorogoy
mesh_terms: D000497:Alloys; D000537:Aluminum Oxide; D015921:Dental Implants; D008422:Materials Testing; D008962:Models, Theoretical; D016348:Osseointegration / Q000187:drug effects; D011312:Pressure; D011474:Prosthesis Design; D013314:Stress, Mechanical; D013499:Surface Properties; D013696:Temperature; D014025:Titanium / Q000737:chemistry
chemical_list: D000497:Alloys; D015921:Dental Implants; C031462:titanium alloy (TiAl6V4); D014025:Titanium; D000537:Aluminum Oxide
keywords: Dental implants; Failure analysis; Finite element analysis; Grit blasting; Retrieved dental implants; Surface topography; Surface treatment