Implants: Titanium or Zirconium?
Made from artificial materials, dental implants are designed to replace, and function like, the roots of teeth lost to decay. With such a variety of implants available we would wish our implants to be the highest quality from the best manufacturer. But even sourcing the best available we still have to ask ourselves, “What material is the implant made of? And, what is the quality and purity of that material?”
Titanium implants?
Titanium has become a very popular material in aerospace, biomedical, and the automotive industry. Titanium is used due to its physical properties, resistance to corrosion, lightness and acceptable biocompatibility.
Titanium Grade 5 (Ti-6Al-4V) is an alloy containing 6% aluminium and 4% vanadium.
Used in areas exposed to high stress, especially in the aviation and marine fields, due to its high material strength and low weight. Titanium Grade 4 (Ti-CP) includes 0.5% iron with ahigh oxygen and nitrogen content, and is slightly more resistant to corrosion than grade 5.
Titanium Grade 5 has more physical resistance than Titanium Grade 4, but Vanadium is known to have a cytotoxic structure. Titanium compounds can be locally or systemically cytotoxic due to their content, and, it has been reported that the aluminum and vanadium elements in the alloy can cause bone destruction, allergic reactions and hypersensitivity when the titanium alloy dissolves. Titanium undergoes biological destruction after long years of corrosion in the bone and can turn into a metal protein complex. But, allergic reactions to pure titanium are very rare in the world.
Or Zirconium implants?
Zirconium has been used in the medical field, especially for body implants, for many years, and due to its physical properties and biological tissue-friendliness its use has considerably increased in recent years. A Swiss company began making Zirconium implants in 1987. Zirconium (a biomaterial) plays a role in the integration of the implant into the bone and acceleration of healing due to the quality of the implant’s surface, significantly contributing to the integration of the implant into bone. There is less plaque accumulation on zirconiumimplants compared to equivalent implants, contributing to less gum disease in years following the implant treatment, minimizing implant rejection. Natural treatment enthusiasts prefer zirconium to titanium implants as the interaction of zirconium with other materials is greatly reduced.
Today, both titanium and zirconium are safely used as implant materials. Our patients due toundergo implant treatment should make their decisions by considering the material content, the origin of the implant brand to be used, the experience of the practitioner, and the competence of the clinic’s physicians.
Dr. Tevfik Yavuz
