Evaluation of the safety and efficiency of novel metallic ultrasonic scaler tip on titanium surfaces

Aim: To evaluate the safety and efficiency of novel ultrasonic scaler tips, conventional stainless-steel tips, and plastic tips on titanium surfaces.

Material and methods: Mechanical instrumentation was carried out using conventional ultrasonic scalers (EMS, Nyon, Switzerland) with novel metallic implant tip (BS), a plastic-headed tip (ES), a plastic tip (PS) and a conventional stainless-steel tip (CS) on 10 polished commercially pure titanium disks (Grade II) per group. Arithmetic mean roughness (R(a) ) and maximum height roughness (R(y) ) of titanium samples were measured and dissipated power of the scaler tip in the tip-surface junction was estimated to investigate the scaling efficiency. The instrumented surface morphology of samples was viewed with a scanning electron microscope (SEM) and surface profile of the each sample was investigated using contact mode with a commercial atomic force microscope (AFM).

Results: There were no significant differences in surface roughness (R(a) and R(y) ) among BS, ES, and PS group. However, CS group showed significant higher surface roughness (R(a) and R(y) ). The efficiency of CS tip is twice as much higher than that of BS tip, the efficiency of BS tip is 20 times higher than that of PS tip, and the efficiency of BS tip is 90 times higher than that of ES tip.

Conclusion: Novel metallic copper alloy ultrasonic scaler tips may minimally influence the titanium surface, similar to plastic tip. Therefore, they can be a suitable instrument for implant maintenance therapy.