A dental implant consists of a titanium screw with roughened or smooth surface. The screw is designed such that it resembles the tooth root. The surface of the dental implant may be altered by using techniques such as anodizing, plasma spraying, etching or sandblasting. These techniques are used to increase the surface area and to improve integration with tissues of the bone.
Most of the dental implants are made from commercial grade titanium. Commercial titanium is available in four grades depending upon the amounts of carbon and iron present in it. In the recent times, grade 5 titanium is also being used to make dental implants.
Dental implants may also be made from titanium alloys. Alloys such as Titanium 6AL-4V which contains 6% aluminum and 4% vanadium offers similar osseointegration as commercially pure titanium. Additionally, they offer better tensile strength and resistance to fracturing.
Today, most of the dental implants are made from commercially pure titanium. Only a select few dental implant systems such as Endopore and NanoTite are made from Titanium 6AL-4V alloy.
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