Peen treatment on a titanium implant: effect of roughness, osteoblast cell functions, and bonding with bone cement

Implant failure due to poor integration of the implant with the surrounding biomaterial is a common problem in various orthopedic and orthodontic surgeries. Implant fixation mostly depends upon the implant surface topography. Micron to nanosize circular-shaped groove architecture with adequate surface roughness can enhance the mechanical interlock and osseointegration of an implant with the host tissue and solve its poor fixation problem. Such groove architecture can be created on a titanium (Ti) alloy implant by laser peening treatment. Laser peening produces deep, residual compressive stresses in the surfaces of metal parts, delivering increased fatigue life and damage tolerance. The scientific novelty of this study is the controlled deposition of circular-shaped rough spot groove using laser peening technique and understanding the effect of the treatment techniques for improving the implant surface properties. The hypothesis of this study was that implant surface grooves created by controlled laser peen treatment can improve the mechanical and biological responses of the implant with the adjoining biomaterial. The objective of this study was to measure how the controlled laser-peened groove architecture on Ti influences its osteoblast cell functions and bonding strength with bone cement. This study determined the surface roughness and morphology of the peen-treated Ti. In addition, this study compared the osteoblast cell functions (adhesion, proliferation, and differentiation) between control and peen-treated Ti samples. Finally, this study measured the fracture strength between each kind of Ti samples and bone cement under static loading. This study found that laser peen treatment on Ti significantly changed the surface architecture of the Ti, which led to enhanced osteoblast cell adhesion and differentiation on Ti implants and fracture strength of Ti-bone cement interfaces compared with values of untreated Ti samples. Therefore, the laser peen treatment method has the potential to improve the biomechanical functions of Ti implants.