Commercially Available Dental Implants: Review of Their Surface Characteristics

Titanium is widely used as an implant material in dentistry with excellent clinical results. The clinical success of the implants is often coupled to the surface properties of the implants. This review focuses on the available literature describing the surface characteristics of the most widely used commercial dental implants. The current commercially available dental implants all show differences in their surface characteristics, for example with regard to surface roughness, surface energy, and surface phase composition. Some surfaces lack published data while the characteristics of others are well described in the literature. However, more analysis by standardized techniques must be performed in order to fully understand which specific parameters are important for osseointegration and clinical success.