Bone Grafting Materials and Wettability of Titanium Implant Surfaces.

Objectives: Bone grafting materials are widely used to treat intrabony peri-implant defects. The wettability of the implant surface can be influenced by the composition of each grafting material. The aim of this study was to test the resulting wettability of commonly used titanium disks with different types of grafts.
Methods: In this in-vitro study, three types of grafts were used allografts (Puros® and Creos™) and a porcine based material (THE Graft™). Saline was used to hydrate and mix the graft particles of each sample for two minutes. The supernatant was used to perform the wettability test for each grafting material (n=20), where 7.5μl were applied on Titanium Alloy and SLA-disks. The contact angles were evaluated using the Ossila goniometer utilizing pure saline as control. The contact angle measurements were used to evaluate the influence of the grafting material on the disk’s wettability. One-way analysis with variance test (ANOVA) was used for statistical analysis.
Results: SLA control values were 76.38±4.32. SLA mean value with Puros® 66.47±4.28, with Creos™ was 71.77±3.56, and with THE Graft™ 72.82±3.92. Titanium Alloy control values were 71.46±3.97. Titanium Alloy mean values with Puros® 61.43±5.82, with Creos™ 69.37±4.10 and with THE Graft™ 66.53±5.63. Titanium alloy-surfaces were more hydrophilic than SLA-disks. Hydration of the tested grafting materials showed higher hydrophilicity on both surfaces. On SLA-surfaces allografts showed better wettability (p<0.05) compared to the controls. In addition, greatest wettability was found on Puros® compared to the other materials. On Titanium alloy-surfaces, hydration with Puros® presented the best wettability. Creos™ and porcine materials presented similar hydrophilicity (p>0.05) on the SLA- and titanium alloy-surfaces.
Conclusions: Within the limitations of the study, all materials improve the hydrophilicity of the surfaces. Puros® demonstrates the highest hydrophilicity with both surfaces. THE Graft™ interacts better with Titanium Alloy rather than SLA. SLA overall is a more hydrophobic compared to Titanium Alloy.