Effects of surface coating on the screw release of dental implant screw

Koo, Cheol In; Chung, Chae Heon; Choe, Han Cheol

Abstract

STATEMENT OF PROBLEM: Implant screw loosening has been remained problem in restorative practices. Surface treatment of screw plays a role of preventing screw from loosening in implant screw mechanism. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate surface characteristics of TiN and ZrN film ion plated screw with titanium and gold alloy screw and to evaluate wear resistance, surface roughness, and film adhesion on screw surface using various instruments. MATERIAL AND METHODS: GoldTite screws and titanium screws provided by 3i (Implant Innovation, USA) and TorqTite screws or titanium screws by Steri-Oss (Nobel Biocare, USA) and gold screws and titanium screws by AVANA (Osstem Implant, korea) were selected. Ion plating which is much superior to other surface modification techniques was carried out for gold screws and titanium screws using Ti and Zr coating materials with nitrogen gas. Ion nitrided surface of each abutment screw was observed with field emission scanning electron microscopy(FE-SEM), micro-diamond scratch tester, vickers hardness tester, and surface roughness tester. RESULTS: 1) The surface of gold screw and GoldTite is more smooth than ones of other kinds of non coated screw. 2) The ZrN and TiN coated surface is the more smooth than ones of other kinds of screw. 3) The hardness of TiN and ZrN coated surface showed higher than that of non coated surface. 4) The TiN coated titanium screw and ZrN coated gold screw have a good wear resistance and adhesion on the surface. 5) The surface of ZrN coated screw showed low surface roughness compared with the surface of TiN coated screw. CONCLUSION: It is considered that the TiN and ZrN coated screw which would prevent a screw from loosening can be appilcable to implant system and confirmed that TiN and ZrN film act as lubricant on surface of screw due to decrease of friction for recycled tightening and loosening.