Metal-ion release from titanium and tin-coated implants in rat bone

Titanium is a good material for dental and orthopaedic implants, but many authors reported that it releases ions into the surrounding tissues and into the serum. Titanium nitride has good mechanical properties and chemical inertless and may be employed as an implant coating material. In this experiment, pure titanium and SiO2 coated with TiN implants were inserted in the tibia of rats. After thirty days, the bones were taken and examined by a proton microprobe. TiN-coated implants showed a lower ion release into the bone compared with pure titanium. This suggests that TiN may be a good coating for endosseous implants.