microleakage evaluation at implant-abutment interface using radiotracer technique

Objectives: microbial leakage through the implant-abutment (i-a) interface results in bacterial colonization in two-piece implants. the aim of this study was to compare microleakage rates in three types of replace abutments namely snappy, goldadapt, and customized ceramic using radiotracing. materials and methods: three groups, one for each abutment type, of five implants and one positive and one negative control were considered (a total of 17 regular body implants). a torque of 35 n/cm was applied to the abutments. the samples were immersed in thallium 201 radioisotope solution for 24 hours to let the radiotracers leak through the i-a interface. then, gamma photons received from the radiotracers were counted using a gamma counter device. in the next phase, cyclic fatigue loading process was applied followed by the same steps of immersion in the radioactive solution and photon counting. results: rate of microleakage significantly increased (p≤0.05) in all three types of abutments (i.e. snappy, goldadapt, and ceramic) after cyclic loading. no statistically significant differences were observed between abutment types after cyclic loading. conclusions: microleakage significantly increases after cyclic loading in all three replace abutments (goldadapt, snappy, ceramic). lowest microleakage before and after cyclic loading was observed in goldadapt followed by snappy and ceramic.