Objective

Very few studies have investigated dental implant components involved in the early stage of healing, especially the implant healing abutment (IHA), despite its vital role in soft tissue contouring and shaping after implant placement. Although these components are labelled by the manufacturer for “single-use only,” it is a common clinical practice to clean, sterilize, and reuse them.

Methods

In the present study, IHAs after single and multiple implantations were retrieved as per standard procedures, and biological material isolated from the surface was subjected to 16S rRNA sequence analysis. The microbiome analysis was followed by cleaning and sterilization in order to replicate clinical sterilization techniques. Following sterilization, retrievals were subjected to surface characterization with optical and scanning electron microscopy to investigate surface features, and electrochemical testing was performed to evaluate corrosion behavior.

Results

The microbiota was comprised of early colonizers including Streptococcus species and secondary anaerobic colonizers such as Fusobacterium, Capnocytophaga, and Prevotella species. The surface analysis revealed that irrespective of the cleaning and sterilization techniques, the pristine, homogeneous surface of the new, unused IHAs could not be restored. Both single and multiple-use IHAs had severe surface changes including discoloration, major abrasions, biological contamination, and the IHA retrievals exhibited higher corrosion rate as compared to control specimens.

Significance

Reusing IHAs multiple times may not be a prudent practice as the microbial colonization and surface changes caused by using this component multiple times may affect the performance of IHAs in soft tissue healing.

中文翻译：

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钛愈合基台多次植入的影响：表面特性和微生物定植。

 客观的

尽管种植体愈合基台 (IHA) 在种植体植入后的软组织轮廓和塑形中发挥着至关重要的作用，但很少有研究调查涉及早期愈合阶段的牙种植体组件，尤其是种植体愈合基台 (IHA)。尽管这些组件被制造商标记为“仅供一次性使用”，但对它们进行清洁、消毒和重复使用是常见的临床实践。

 方法

在本研究中，按照标准程序回收单次和多次植入后的 IHA，并对从表面分离的生物材料进行 16S rRNA 序列分析。微生物组分析后进行清洁和灭菌，以复制临床灭菌技术。灭菌后，利用光学和扫描电子显微镜对回收物进行表面表征，以研究表面特征，并进行电化学测试以评估腐蚀行为。

 结果

微生物群由早期定殖者（包括链球菌属）和次生厌氧定殖者（例如梭杆菌属、二氧化碳噬菌体和普雷沃氏菌属）组成。表面分析表明，无论采用何种清洁和灭菌技术，新的、未使用的 IHA 都无法恢复原始、均匀的表面。一次性和多次使用的 IHA 都具有严重的表面变化，包括变色、严重磨损、生物污染，并且与对照样本相比，IHA 修复显示出更高的腐蚀率。

 意义

多次重复使用 IHA 可能不是一个谨慎的做法，因为多次使用该组件引起的微生物定植和表面变化可能会影响 IHA 在软组织愈合中的性能。