Effect of different surface treatments on retention of cement-retained implant-supported crowns

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of different treatments applied to titanium implant abutment surfaces on the retention of implant-supported cement-retained crowns with resin cement. 72 titanium implant abutments were divided into 6 groups (n:12) based on the selected surface treatments; Group 1: Untreated; Group 2: Sandblasted; Group 3: Hydrogen peroxide etching; Group 4: Atmospheric plasma; Group 5: Chemical mechanical polishing, and; Group 6: Sol-gel nano coating with titanium dioxide. After the surface treatments, scanning electron microscopy analyses and surface roughness measurements of abutment surfaces were performed. 72 Cr-Co alloy crowns were fabricated and cemented on the abutments with dual cure resin cement. After a thermal cycling, crown retention was measured by using a Universal Testing machine. Data were statistically evaluated with one-way analysis of variance (One-way ANOVA), Tukey HDS, and Tamhane's T2 test. Significance was evaluated in p<0.05 level. The highest surface roughness values were obtained with the sandblasted group (Group 2) (1.44 µm), which also resulted in the highest retention values (828.46 N), followed by the hydrogen peroxide etching group (Group 3) (490.74 N), the atmospheric plasma group (Group 4) (466.54 N), the chemical mechanical polishing group (Group 5) (410.8 N), and the control group (Group 1) (382.64 N). It was determined that sandblasting, hydrogen peroxide etching, and atmospheric plasma treatments significantly increased the crown retention. Key Words: Titanium, retention, surface roughness, atmospheric plasma, hydrogen peroxide