Osseointegration of endodontic endosseous cones: zirconium oxide vs titanium

The purpose of this investigation was to investigate the osseointegration of zirconium oxide (ZrO(2)) ceramic cones in comparison with that of titanium cones in apicectomy.

To evaluate the bone/implant interface, 20 ZrO(2) cones and 20 titanium cones were inserted into the mandibles of 4 Göttinger minipigs. During the 6-month healing period, intravital polychrome sequence marking was performed. Qualitative light microscopic, fluorescence microscopic, and quantitative histomorphometric assessment was carried out. Differences between continuous histomorphometric measures were tested through use of a 2-way analysis of variance.

Light microscopy revealed zones of direct bone contact with the ZrO(2) and titanium surfaces. Fluorescence microscopy revealed remodeling processes directly adjacent to both material surfaces. There was no significant difference in the distances of the fluorescence bands of each fluorescence marker for either the ZrO(2) surfaces or the titanium surfaces. Quantitatively and histomorphometrically, the mean ratio between the total cone/bone contact and the total cone/fibrous tissue contact was 0.95 (SD 1.10) on the titanium surface (n = 38) and 1.47 (SD 1.12) on the ZrO(2) surface (n = 78; P =.02).

The qualitative results show that the biocompatibility of ZrO(2) was similar to that of titanium. The use of ZrO(2) cones for sealing purposes in resected teeth after apicectomy appears to be acceptable.