Sphere-plane methodology to evaluate the wear of titanium of dental implants: a research proposal

OBJECTIVE: Titanium is the most commonly used material to manufacture dental implants and abutments. Recently, zirconia abutments have been manufactured with better aesthetic properties. However, zirconia abutments are harder than titanium implants; therefore, they could wear the implant surface. Therefore, this article aims to describe a sphere-plane system that can be used to assess the wear that different abutment materials cause in the titanium of dental implants when submitted to cyclic loading. This method can be used to simulate the oral cavity, where the abutment (sphere) applies loads onto the implant (titanium plane). The spheres were made of different materials (titanium and zirconia), and the specimens were loaded for 4,000,000 cycles. The scar size and area on titanium planes were measured with stereoscopic images and analysed through profilometry. RESULTS: The wear of titanium planes was similar when tested against zirconia or titanium spheres. The sphere-plane system is a method that can be used to evaluate and quantify the wear of the titanium of dental implants, and compared with methods that use real implants, this system is simpler and less expensive. This method could facilitate further research to evaluate the wear of titanium against different materials and under different testing conditions. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s13104-018-3635-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.