Surface roughness of implants: A review

For centuries, clinicians have been attempting to replace missing teeth with suitable synthetic materials. Dental implants are fixtures that serve as replacements for the root of the missing natural tooth and becoming popular in the current day dental practice. Success or failure of the dental implant treatment is mainly based on the principles of creating and maintaining an interface between the implant and surrounding bone. This can be achieved by a phenomenon called osseointegration, which is the direct and stable anchorage of an implant due to the formation of bony tissue around the implant. A number of systemic and local factors influence the production of an osseointegrated interface and therefore the stability of the implant. However, surface characteristics of the implant materials in general and surface roughness in particular have received a great deal attention in the recent years to help achieve favourable interaction between the implant and biological tissues. Present article is a review of surface roughness characteristics and its effect on the osseointegration of dental implant materials.