Question

A titanium dental implant was manufactured by the

Biomatter Company for the past 8 years. It performed

well clinically. For economic reasons, manufacturing of

the titanium device was outsourced to Metalsmed, Inc.

Early clinical results on this Metalsmed implant, supposedly

identical to the Biomatter implant, suggested

increased inflammation. How would you compare the

surface chemistry and structure of these two devices to

see if a difference that might account for the difference

in clinical performance could be identified?