Siberians work to make implants last long

Researchers at the Tomsk State University (TSU) in Siberia have developed a new method of improving the survival of implants used for oral and maxillofacial surgery and in dentistry. 

The project is aimed at increasing surface roughness on pore walls in titanium nickelide (TiNi) based porous materials, the ones that are used in implant manufacture. The physicists say that a certain know-how technique used in TiNi powder sintering leads to the buildup of special terrace-like reliefs/protrusions which improves implant survival. 

The researchers are said to have completed in-vitro testing and confirmed a positive effect an increase in surface roughness had on implants. The more cells and inter-cellular protrusions attach themselves to the implant material, the more active the development of cell populations will be found in the porous implant, explained Sergei Anikeyev of TSU’s laboratory for medical alloys and shape-memory implants. 

With this new approach, manufacturers would be able to impart certain specific structural properties to an alloy before an implant is made, thus rendering it unnecessary to change the end product at a later stage.

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