Investigation of Acid Residue on the Surface of Dental Implants after Different Surface Cleaning Processes

For dental implants to osseointegrate well, all clinical and production conditions must be perfect. Due to some negativities in production conditions, unwanted residual materials may remain on the implant surfaces, and these may adversely affect osseointegration. While producing implants, some surface treatments are required. These processes are generally based on the principle of increasing the surface area. Thus, they can provide attachment to the bone on more surfaces. Most methods applied to increase the implant surface area include acidic chemicals. After the acid is applied to the implant surfaces, the acid in the pits formed on the surface must be removed entirely. In cases where the acid cannot be completely removed, the remaining acid may cause bone destruction and cause implant loss. For this reason, some processes must be applied to remove residual acid. In this study, we aimed to find better ways to clean the acid residues on the implant surface. We created 2 groups of 20 implants in our study. Micro arc oxidation was applied with sulfuric acid in 2 groups and then washed with distilled water in a 180-watt ultrasonic cleaner. One group of implants was washed with pure water only, and the other group was washed with pure water and chemically neutralized. Sodium Bicarbonate 10% solution was prepared and washed for neutralization; the second group was kept in this solution for 10 minutes and washed with distilled water again. The implants in both groups were placed in 10cc ph7 distilled water and left for one day. After one day, the liquids were measured with a digital pH meter. In the measurement of the water in the group that was washed only with pure water, the average pH was 6.8, while the average pH of the water in the other group was 7. Our study concluded for the first time that basic neutralization on the implant surface could neutralize the acid residue in the microwells. We recommend chemical neutralization in implant manufacturing processes and think it can reduce implant failure rates.