Titanium engineered surfaces for Innovative bioactive DEntal implant (TIDE)

Dental implants are ordinarily used in clinics for the replacement of damaged or unfunctional teeth. In the last decades, although materials and techniques used as well as and implant design have been significantly improved, implant failure remains a primary concern for dentists and maxilla-facial surgeons. Early failure represents a lack to establish osseointegration of dental implants, while late failure is the deficiency of either the established osseointegration or function of dental implants. While early failure is solely biologic complications, late failure could have either biologic or mechanical complications. Biologic complications could be due to peri-implantitis, it usually involves the resorption of soft and hard tissue. Mechanical complications could be due to improper implant loading design, it could lead to the fracture of implant body, screw body or implant supra-structure. Moreover, literature indicates that peri-implantitis and implant overloading were common risk factors for late failure. For this reason, research in biomaterials and regenerative medicine are assuming a growing importance in order to improve patients’ satisfaction trough the excellence of innovative implants able to perfectly restore the organs’ functionality. The project aims to study the interactions between the surface of titanium, which is the current material of choice for the fabrication of endosseous dental implants and abutments for prosthetic reconstruction, and the tissues and cells that functionally interact with it. In particular, the project will focus on how different titanium surface electrochemical treatments can selectively influence pathogenic and commensal bacteria adhesion and proliferation, as well as with gum cells (gingival fibroblasts) and bone cells repopulation. Plasma Electrolytic Oxidation (PEO) is a unique technology employed to treat valve metals, such as titanium and its alloys, granting them additional and multiple functionalities such as chemical and structural modification of the surface oxide, improvement of resistance to corrosion and wear. Plasma discharges related to PEO treatments is exploited to obtain surface oxide layers with high roughness and porosity. In dental implantology, those features are beneficial for soft and bone tissue integration, although rough and porous surface can be associated with implant metal leaching - migration of metal ions in peri-implant tissue and bacteria colonization in dental applications. Thus, the functionalization of titanium implant surfaces has been increasingly attempted through different techniques and PEO has appeared as a promising approach to overcome the main causes of implants failure.