Morphological and animal study of titanium dental implant surface induced by blasting and high intensity pulsed Nd-glass laser

Machined dental implants of titanium were blasted with Al2O3 powder of 250 μm particle size. The surface was irradiated in vacuum with a Nd-glass pulsed laser at 1–3 J pulse energies. The morphology of these surfaces was investigated by optical and scanning electron microscopy. The low intensity laser treatment resulted in some new irregularities but we can observe the blasted elements and caves from the original blasted surface too. The blasted elements were washed out and a new surface morphology was induced by the high intensity laser treatment. seointegration was determined by measuring the removal torque in the rabbit experiments. The results were referred to the as machined surface. The blasting slightly increased the removal torque. The laser irradiation increased the removal torque significantly, more by a factor of 1.5 compared to the reference at high laser intensity. This shows the influence of the surface morphology on the osseointegration. mbination of the blasting with the laser irradiation is considered a method to determine the morphology optimal for the osseointegration because the pulsed laser irradiation caused modifications of the micrometer sized surface elements and decreases possible surface contamination.