A Light and Scanning Electron Microscopy Study of Human Direct Laser Metal Forming Dental Implants

Direct laser metal forming (DLMF) is a procedure in which a high-power laser beam is directed on a metal powder bed and programmed to fuse particles according to a computer-aided design file, thus generating a thin metal layer. With DLMF, it is now possible to fabricate dental implants with a superficial porous surface. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the peri-implant soft tissues around human-retrieved DLMF dental implants. Collagen fibers, in the form of bundles, were oriented perpendicularly to a distance of 100 μm from the surface, where they became parallel, running in several directions. In some portions, only a few collagen fiber bundles appeared to be oriented perpendicularly or obliquely to the plane of the section. Collagen fibers appeared to form a dense chaotic three-dimensional network running in different, more or less parallel directions to the surface. Under scanning electron microscopy, an intimate contact of the fibrous matrix with the implant surface was evident, and some collagen bundles could be seen to bind directly to the metal surface. By changing the surface microtexture, it was possible to change the response of the peri-implant soft tissues.