DENTAL IMPLANT

Abstract

The present invention discloses a dental implant configured to be inserted in a hole in jaw bone and to be at least partially situated in the bone tissue when implanted and comprises: a coronal region, an apical region, a longitudinal axis extending from the coronal region of the dental implant to the apical region of the dental implant; an implant surface configured to form an interface between an implant material and the oral environment/surrounding tissue and a surface layer formed on at least part of said implant surface, said surface layer comprising crystalline titanium oxide in the anatase phase and wherein the surface area roughness Sa and the pore size of the implant surface on which said surface layer is formed increase from the coronal region toward the apical region of the dental implant along the longitudinal axis.

Claims

1.-13. (canceled)

14. A method of placing a dental implant into a patient's jawbone, the method comprising: inserting the dental implant into a hole in the patient's jawbone, the dental implant comprising: a coronal region; an apical region; an implant surface; a surface layer formed on at least part of said implant surface, wherein said implant surface on which said surface layer is formed includes a surface roughness Sa, wherein said surface area roughness Sa of said implant surface on which said surface layer is formed has a value of at least 0.1 μm in the coronal region of the dental implant and a value of at least 1 μm in the apical region of the dental implant, and wherein said surface layer on the implant surface has a thickness such that the surface area roughness Sa of the implant surface at the coronal region is not canceled out by said surface layer; at least partially situating the apical region adjacent bone tissue; and exposing the coronal region adjacent soft tissue.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the surface area roughness Sa of the implant surface on which said surface layer is formed in the coronal region of the dental implant is in the range of 0.1 μm to 0.5 μm.

16. The method according to claim 14, wherein said surface area roughness Sa of said implant surface on which said surface layer is formed has a value of at least 0.2 μm in the coronal region of the dental implant.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein the surface area roughness Sa of the implant surface on which said surface layer is formed in the coronal region of the dental implant is in the range of 0.2 μm to 0.5 μm.

18. The method according to claim 14, wherein the surface area roughness Sa of the implant surface on which said surface layer is formed in the apical region of the dental implant is in the range of 1.0 to 5 μm.

19. The method according to claim 14, wherein the surface area roughness Sa of the implant surface on which said surface layer is formed increase from the coronal region to the apical region.

20. The method according to claim 14, wherein said implant surface on which said surface layer is formed includes a pore size, and wherein an average pore size of pores intersecting the implant surface on which said surface layer is formed has a value of <0.2 μm in the coronal region of the dental implant.

21. The method according to claim 20, wherein the average pore size of pores intersecting the implant surface on which said surface layer is formed has a value of <0.1 μm in the coronal region of the dental implant.

22. The method according to claim 14, wherein said implant surface on which said surface layer is formed includes a pore size, and wherein an average pore size of pores intersecting the implant surface on which said surface layer is formed is minimal in the coronal region with respect to the overall implant surface on which said surface layer is formed.

23. The method according to claim 14, wherein said implant surface on which said surface layer is formed includes a pore size, and wherein an average pore size of pores intersecting the implant surface on which said surface layer is formed has a value of at least 1 μm in the apical region of the dental implant.

24. The method according to claim 14, wherein said implant surface on which said surface layer is formed includes a pore size, and an average pore size of pores intersecting the implant surface on which said surface layer is formed is maximal in the apical region with respect to the overall implant surface.

25. The method according to claim 14, wherein said implant surface on which said surface layer is formed includes a pore size, and wherein the pore size of the implant surface on which said surface layer is formed increase from the coronal region to the apical region.

26. The method according to claim 14, wherein said surface layer is thicker in the apical region than in the coronal region, wherein said surface layer has a thickness between 50 and 500 nm in the coronal region.

27. The method according to claim 14, wherein said surface layer at least partially formed on said implant surface has a thickness between 1 and 20 μm in the apical region.

28. The method according to claim 14, wherein the implant material comprises or consists of titanium or a titanium alloy.

29. The method according to claim 14, wherein at least part of said surface layer comprises crystalline titanium oxide in the anatase phase in at least the apical region.

30. The method according to claim 29, wherein the crystalline titanium oxide comprised in said surface layer comprises anatase in the range of 70-100% and wherein the remaining of the layer comprises rutile and/or amorphous titanium oxide.

31. The method according to claim 14, wherein said implant surface on which said surface layer is formed comprises phosphorus.

32. The method according to claim 14, wherein a region of the implant surface in the coronal region of the dental implant is machined and at least partially so configured that the characteristics of the implant surface as-formed by said machining are maintained when the surface layer is superimposed.

33. The method according to claim 14, wherein the implant surface is at least partially a rolled surface.

Description

BRIEF DESCRIPTION THE DRAWING

[0041] The various aspects, features and advantages of the present invention will further become apparent from the following description of ways of carrying out the invention in combination with the following accompanying drawing, in which:

[0042] FIG. 1 is a schematic drawing of a screw-like dental implant with an illustration of surface morphologies encountered on the implant's surface along its longitudinal axis.

WAYS OF CARRYING OUT THE INVENTION

[0043] Specific ways of carrying cut the invention will now be described in detail, where appropriate with reference to the accompanying drawing. The specific embodiments are not intended to unduly limit the invention, but are rather provided so that the disclosure will be thorough, complete and will fully convey the scope of the invention to the skilled person.

[0044] One way of putting the present invention into practice is shown in FIG. 1 appended to this application. Therein, a screw-like dental implant 1 is depicted. As described earlier, said screw is to be considered a mere illustrative example of a dental implant according to the present invention for the sake of comprehensibility, but not as being construed limiting. In FIG. 1 the dental implant 1 is a somewhat conical screw with an outer thread for engaging with bone tissue and a longitudinal axis L, running as a rotational axis of the cone-like implant from its coronal region indicated by the bracket 2 to the implant's apical region as indicated by bracket 3. The actual extent of these regions is not meant to be ultimately defined by the brackets 2 and 3, which are mainly illustrational. However, what the size of the brackets and their positions may however indicate is that the coronal and apical regions are not necessarily meant to be directly adjacent to each other. It is hence conceivable that both regions are “separated” along the longitudinal axis L by a transitional region 4. The implant's surface is indicated by reference numeral 5 and for the sake of intelligibility said surface in region 2 is illustrated on the one hand by a metallic-like surface (upper half of coronal region 2) and a grey-shaded/structured region below, extending all the way down to the apical region 3. The latter is meant to represent the implant surface on which at least partially a surface layer is formed. Here “partially” means that the uppermost (coronal) part of the implant is as-machined, i.e., as described above is a finished metal surface. However, it is also within the scope of the invention that the surface layer extends all the way up and that hence such metallic surface without surface layer does no longer exist. The implant surface with the surface layer formed thereon is illustrated by the grey, structured and dully-drawn parts of the screw. This should indicate the titanium oxide containing surface layer formed on the implant's surface. Specifically here, the surface layer comprises anatase and phosphates. The insets (a) to (d) are actual electron micrographs taken at different positions of the implant surface 5 along the axis L and illustrate the morphological evolution along the implant surface 5 with the surface layer formed thereon. Inset (a) basically shows a morphological “starting point” in the coronal region 2 with little electron contrast and image features. The corresponding region of the implant is characterized by an as-machined, for example, metallic surface In which a comparatively thin, smooth and dense titanium oxide layer, predominantly comprising anatase is formed. Surface roughness measurements in said region yield a low roughness of Ra≈0.2 μm. When “moving” further along the axis L towards the apical region 3 of the dental implant 1, observable and measurable changes occur. Inset (b) already indicates a certain “waviness” of the surface, which is reflected by a higher roughness of Ra≈0.5 μm. At the same time, pores appear as black, low image signal yield regions in the electron micrograph. Insets (c) and (d) then first and foremost document that the waviness transforms somewhat in an “island”-structure and the roughness measured increases accordingly from Ra≈0.8 μm to Ra≈1.5 μm. Inset (d) in particular shows that in the apical region 3 an morphological “end point” is reached, where roughness, pore size and layer thickness reach a maximum, starting from the coronal region 2 with the corresponding minimum. Although the morphological evolution has above been documented by roughness values Ra, the same observations do apply for the related roughness value Sa. The transition between the two extremes can occur gradually and continuously throughout the transitional region 4 along the axis L as insets (b) and (c) show. It is understandable from insets (a) and (d) that the first shows a surface optimal with respect to ease of cleaning and provides only few sites/pockets/retreats for colonization with bacteria, whereas the latter shows a surface that is obviously predestined for bone tissue to embrace the island-structure and to grow into the open pores on the implant surface establishing a solid mechanical link to the implant.

[0045] This advantageous structural functionality of the implant surface documented by micrographs and surface measurements consorts with a (bio-) chemical functionality that results from titanium oxide being beneficial for osseointegration and as argued above, also for the suppress-ion of biofilm formation.

[0046] The surface characteristics employed to qualify the properties of the implant surface with the surface layer, surface area roughness Sa and pore size, are to be construed as having the meaning the person skilled in the art of surface science and metrology would allocate them.

[0047] Mean roughness (Sa) is measured at points covering 630×470 μm using a WYKO NT9100 optical profiling system. Data are evaluated in WYKO software Vision 4.10, which provides data processing by extrapolation of “dead pixels”, tilt correction and smoothing with a 5×5 med=an filter. With respect to the surface roughness, it should be understood that the surface of the implant on which said surface layer is formed is actually caused by the superposition of individual roughness components. On the one hand, the original/native implant surface will possess an inherent roughness that is largely determined by the way the bulk implant itself is manufactured and its surface finished. For dental implants, machined implant surfaces are showing good osseointegration and soft tissue integration performance. On the other hand, the surface layer formed at least partially on said implant surface also possesses an inherent roughness. Consequently, the overall surface roughness could be considered, for example, as a superposition of a microscale amplitude, low frequency roughness of an as-machined/finished implant surface and a nanoscale amplitude, high frequency roughness of the surface layer formed thereon.

[0048] The porosity of the implant surface in the present application is preferably an “open porosity”, which means only voids that are superficially detectable, i.e., that are intersected by the implant surface plane (s) are taken into account. Pores or voids formed in the bulk of the implant material or inside the surface layer, but not extending to and intersecting the implant surface do not contribute to the porosity of the implant surface. Said latter porosity itself is further determined by the pore size thereof. The porosity can generally be determined as the fraction of a surface area formed by voids with respect to the surface area formed by material. The skilled person would readily choose a well-known standard method and apparatus Lo measure said porosity.

[0049] A widely used method for determining the porosity of surfaces, as it is desired in the present invention, is image analysis of micrographs taken from the surfaces in question.

[0050] This method is based on image signal differences between pores on the surface and surface regions with material. The first generally having low signal yield and often appear black in corresponding micrographs. Modern image analysis techniques can then evaluate the fraction of these low contrast regions per image and therefrom, the porosity can be deduced. Said micrographs can, depending on the pore size, be recorded via (reflected-) light microscopy or electron microscopy, wherein the image analysis procedures are basically identical for either method. The pore size is determined by simply measuring the size of individual pores directly in the micrographs, which can be done electronically with software tools incorporated in conventional image analysis software. In addition to the above method, it is also conceivable to determine the surface roughness and porosity via tactile or non-tactile scanning methods that are capable of yielding three dimensional surface information on the required scale, for example, AFM, interference or laser-scanning techniques.

[0051] As regards ways of generating the above described implant surface, reference is made to the methods of modifying an implant's surface in the publications WO 0C/72777 A1 and Wo 01/76653 A1, which were also employed to produce the dental implant according to the present invention, in particular, these dental implants comprising or consisting of titanium or a titanium alloy.

[0052] Scale indicated in inset (a) is 2 μm.

[0053] Scale indicated in inset (b) is 10 μm.