Recent advancements in surface modifications of dental implants

Implantology is one of the most investigated topics in modern dentistry. The current review was planned to systematically summarise all industrial, mass production and experimental trends in dental implant manufacturing relative primarily to their surface modification conducted between January 2017 and January 2020.

The review was conducted in Army Medical College, National University of Medical Sciences, Rawalpindi, Armed Forces Institute Of Dentistry, Combined Military Hospital, Rawalpindi, Foundation University College of Dentistry, Fauji Foundation Hospital, Islamabad, and the Higher Education Commission Library, Islamabad. Literature was searched on PubMed, Scopus, Medline, Cochrane and Science Direct databases. The key words employed were "dental Implants", "surface modification", "surface morphology", "surface treatment" and "surface augmentation".

A total of 38 articles were short-listed and reviewed in detail. There was abundant evidence suggesting the importance of these surface modifications on improving the implant success. Several strategies have been suggested to modify the implant surface topography as well as surface chemistry in order to achieve a micro-porous structure with nano-scale architecture, with increased bio-activity; hydrophilicity and anti-bacterial properties.

There has been commendable success with many of these strategies in laboratories. However, following the success in ex-vivo studies, very few of these surface modalities have found their way to clinical set-ups.