Tag: dental implants

Insights into patient healing after placement of dental implants

Insights into patient healing after placement of dental implants

Griffith University researchers investigated the biological process involved in healing after dental implant placements using imaging data from the Australian Synchrotron. 

Dental implant placements often have lengthy healing periods and risks of other complications. The success of dental implant healing relies on bone tissue connecting with the surface of the implant in a process is known as osseointegration. 

Osseointegration is dependent on tiny living cells that maintain the bone matrix, osteocyte lacunae. The arrangement of these cells allows the bone to adapt and remodel to dental implants.

The team comprising Dr Yuqing Mu, and Prof Dr Yin Xiao used the Micro-Computed Tomography beamline to generate high-resolution 3D images that revealed the structure of osteocyte lacunae around implants in animal bone tissue, during the osseointegration process.  

“The MCT beamline can produce high resolution, three-dimensional images in micron size to visualise small things like osteocyte lacunae. It allowed researchers to see the healing between bone and the implant” explained Dr. Benedicta Arhatari, MCT beamline scientist. 

By understanding the role of osteocyte lacunae in the healing process, scientists can improve design of implant surfaces and materials. This will improve the integration of dental implants, leading to better outcomes for patients.

“Researchers can take MCT images of several different implant material or surface roughness and see how the bone heals to decide which implant material and surface is best for bone healing” added Dr. Arhatari. 

Read more on ANSTO website

Ultrafast surface processes observed

Ultrafast surface processes observed

SINGLE X-RAY LASER PULSES CAN BE USED TO OBSERVE ULTRAFAST CHANGES ON MATERIAL SURFACES WITH UNPRECEDENTED DEPTH AND TIME RESOLUTION

In a world first, an international team of scientists led by European XFEL and the University of Siegen has demonstrated that the intense pulses produced by an X-ray laser can be used to investigate ultrafast processes occurring on and just below material surfaces with unprecedented depth and time resolution. This allows researchers to capture processes that are more than a billion times faster than what could previously be observed. The results, which the team has just published in Physical Review Research, pave the way for versatile applications that rely on our understanding of ultrafast surface dynamics. Examples are the laser processing of material surfaces to create tailor-made nanoscale structures or the realization of compact laser-based particle or radiation sources.

Using intense laser pulses, nanoscale surface structures can be created with optimized optical, mechanical, and chemical properties. Such tailored structures play a decisive role in many fields with significant societal and economic impact. They can be used to fashion antimicrobial coatings, to improve the bonding of dental implant screws with bone, and to build advanced optical components with high damage thresholds. To be able to better create these structures and comprehend their effects, scientists first need to observe and understand the ultrafast processes that happen when the intense femtosecond laser pulses used in the surface processing hit the material and react with it.

Read more on the European XFEL website

Image: Grazing-incidence small-angle X-ray scattering image obtained from a multilayer sample, measured using single X-ray pulses of the SACLA X-ray laser in Japan. The central black circle is the beamstop used to block the main mirror-like reflection peak, which is much more intense than the scattering pattern. The pattern contains information on the depth-resolved density profile (horizontal axis) and the surface structure (vertical axis).