Comparative study of serum titanium levels in patients before and after dental implant placement

Titanium (Ti) dental implants are considered the gold standard in edentulous rehabilitation. However, the tribocorrosion and subsequent release of titanium ions into the systemic circulation has become an issue of concern. Hence, this prospective longitudinal study used the Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS) at baseline, 1-week and 6-months post-operative in order to study serum titanium levels in 60 healthy patients that were undertaking the implant surgery. The baseline serum titanium levels were 1.42 ± 0.55 ng/mL with a statistically significant increase of the mean serum titanium levels to 2.15 + 0.82 ng/mL after one week post- operation and a partial stabilization to 1.94 + 0.71 ng/mL at 6 months. Though, the dental implant placement causes a statistically significant increase in the levels of titanium in the systemic compartments, these levels are far below the accepted toxicological limits.