Use of a three-dimensional scaffold to support bone cell growth and differentiation on commercially pure titanium

Abstract

The development of osseointegrated dental implants has significantly enhanced the capacity of the dental profession to replace hard and soft dental tissues, lost due to trauma or disease (Degidi and Piattelli, 2005). However, deficiencies in bone volume continue to provide challenges for dental implant placement. The problems presented by a lack of bone volume have been partially overcome by a variety of surgical techniques aimed at incorporating a graft of osseoconductive material at a surgical site which would ultimately be replaced by a vascularised bed of bone with the capacity to retain a dental implant. The drawbacks associated with the current surgical techniques used for bone grafting include extra surgical procedures and donor site morbidity in the case of autografts (Younger and Chapman, 1989). Although slight, the potential for disease transmission with the use of xenografts does exist and the limited capacity of both xenografts and alloplastic materials to resorb and become replaced by bone also limit successful clinical use (Hammerle et al., 1997, Hinze et al., 2010).