Acceleration of apatite nucleation on microrough bioactive titanium for bone-replacing implants.

The viability of a new two-step method for obtaining bioactive microrough titanium surfaces for bone replacing implants has been evaluated. The method consists of (1) Grit blasting on titanium surface to roughen it; and (2) Thermo-chemical treating to obtain a bioactive surface with bone-bonding ability by means of nucleating and growing an apatite layer on the treated surface of the metal. The aim of this work is to evaluate the effect of surface roughness and chemical composition of the grit-blasting particles on the ability of the surfaces of nucleating and growing a homogeneous apatite layer. The determination and kinetics of the nucleation and growing of the apatite layer on the surfaces has mainly been studied with environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) and grazing-incidence X-ray diffractometry. The results show that Al(2)O(3)-blasted and thermochemically-treated titanium surfaces accelerates nucleation of the apatite, whereas SiC-blasted and thermochemically-treated titanium surfaces inhibits apatite nucleation, compared with the well studied polished and thermochemically-treated titanium surfaces. The acceleration of the apatite nucleation on the Al(2)O(3)-blasted microrough titanium surfaces is because concave parts of the microroughness that are obtained during grit blasting provides to the rough and bioactive surfaces with a chemical- and electrostatic-favored situation for apatite nucleation. This consists of a high density of surface negative charges (also assisted by the nanoroughness of the surface obtained after the thermochemical treatment) and an increased concentration of the Ca(2+)-ions of the fluid, which have a limited mobility at the bottom of the concave parts.

Fracture and fatigue behavior of shot-blasted titanium dental implants.

This investigation studies the effect of the shot-blasting treatment on the cyclic deformation behavior of a commercially pure titanium, with two microstructures: equiaxed and acicular. The fatigue tests were carried out in artificial saliva medium at 37 degrees C. Cyclic deformation tests have been carried out up to fracture, and the fatigue crack nucleation and propagation have been analyzed. The results show that the shot-blasting treatment improves the fatigue life in the microstructures studied, and that the equiaxed was better in mechanical properties than the acicular. The cause of this improvement in the mechanical properties is due to the compressive stress on the material surface for the shot-blasted specimens. Hardness tests were carried out to determine the value of these internal stresses.