Comparison of elemental composition and morphological characteristics of orthodontic titanium mini-implants

Abstract

Objectives: To evaluate and compare the indigenous and imported titanium mini-implants for their elemental composition and morphological characteristics. Materials and Methods: Five indigenous titanium mini-implants of (SK Surgical, Pune, Maharashtra, India) and five imported titanium mini-implant samples (IMTEC Corp., Ardmore, OK, USA) having a length of 8 mm each was compared. Elemental analysis was done by energy dispersive spectroscopy. Morphological characteristics such as the external diameter, internal diameter, thread interval or pitch, cutting edge of the threads, the shape of the screw and length were evaluated by scanning electron microscopy. Data were analyzed by one-way ANOVA to evaluate the differences in samples of the same group, and Student's t -test was used to compare the morphological characteristics between the two groups. Results: The elemental analysis showed that the indigenous mini-implants correspond to alpha-phase titanium alloy compared to imported mini-implants which correspond to alpha + beta phase titanium alloy. Statistical tests showed that the imported mini-implants were tapered compared to indigenous mini-implants which were straight or cylindrical in shape. There was a statistically significant difference in other morphological characteristics of mini-implants between the two groups as well. Conclusion: Indigenous mini-implants tested were made of titanium alloy (Ti-4Al) and imported mini-implants were made of titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V). Significant mean differences were found in the morphological characteristics amongst the indigenous titanium mini-implants ( F > 2.49).