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Updated: Jun 14, 2025
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Published on: August 5, 2021
Effect Of Electrolytic Cleaning on Mechanical Properties for Titanium Dental Implants with Surface Contamination
Purpose:
To evaluate the effect of the electrolytic cleaning method on the mechanical properties of dental implants.
Materials And Methods:
A total of 90 dental implants were studied, of which 30 were control, 30 were treated with GalvoSurge (Dental Implant Cleaning System GS 1000, Straumann), and 30 were treated with concentrated hypochlorous acid. The amount of hydrogen in the titanium (Ti) interior was determined for each of the samples via spectroscopy to obtain an elemental analysis of hydrogen TCH600 LECO. Electrochemical corrosion tests were performed on 30 dental implants to determine the corrosion potentials and corrosion intensity for the different treatments. One important factor for the fatigue behavior is residual stress, which was studied by Bragg-Bentano X-ray diffraction. Fatigue tests were performed using a servohydraulic machine that determines the S-N curves by performing triaxial tests (tension-compression and 5-degree torsion) at different loads to simulate human mastication. A study of the dental implant fractures was carried out by scanning electron microscopy, and the samples were observed by transmission electron microscopy to see the possible appearance of hydrides in the Ti microstructure.
Results:
The results showed that the electrolytic technique reduces the presence of hydrogen in the dental implant and the acid treatment increases it, causing the presence of hydrides at the grain boundaries of the Ti. It has been shown that galvanic treatments do not affect the corrosion resistance of dental implants. However, attacks with hypochlorous acid increase the corrosion rate due to the fact that acid attack on a Ti surface favors pitting points. Fatigue tests show that dental implants treated with GalvoSurge have a longer fatigue life than the control due to the lower hydrogen content. It was shown that the increase of hydrogen in the acid-treated implants reduces the fatigue life of the dental implant.
Conclusions:
The formation of hydrogen via electrolysis does not cause a diffusion of this element to Ti nor does it affect corrosion resistance, but it reduces the level of hydrogen, which favors its mechanical properties in the long term.
