Analysis of surface cleanliness of three commercial dental implants

Six routinely packaged commercially pure titanium dental implants (three commercial brands) were analysed using secondary ion mass spectrometry to examine the outermost surface layer. The aim of the analysis was to compare the surface purity (99.95%) of the implants with the substrate metal, common to all three brands. The use of a low primary ion current density provided a nominal protection limit of 0.01% or 100 p.p.m. All the implants examined had extremely pure surfaces. However, only one brand of implant had an ultraclean oxide surface in relation to the substrate.