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ePaper created 2018-01-31, 10:01:59 | version 1.38.0
| interview Non-original abutments are “a lottery that you cannot win” An interview with Prof. Matthias Karl from Saarland University, Germany, about the results of the research into micromotion at the implant-abutment interface In a recent study analysing the effect of cyclic loading on micro- motion at the implant-abutment in- terface, the authors found that a quantifiable settling effect seems to be more pronounced in non- original abutments.1 In the in vitro study, the NobelProcera implant- abutment interface showed the lowest initial micromotion and min- imal settling effect. Why is it important for clinicians to know about micromotion in general regarding the implant- abutment assembly? Prof. Karl: From a prosthodon- tist’s perspective, the interface be- tween the implant and what goes on top of the implant is, in my opin- ion, the most critical interface in im- plant dentistry. To my knowledge, it’s still impossible to manufacture two parts that fit perfectly. Perfect means zero micrometres of gap, but there is always a certain amount of component interplay. This is also needed by the implant manufactur- ers, because different parts from different batches have to match each other. As a consequence, during dynamic loading and mas- tication, there will be some micro- movement between the abutment and the implant. This may cause fatigue over time. What were the findings of your study? We studied different abutments for Straumann tissue level implants. In particular, we analysed the im- Fig. 1: Study results: Micromotion before and after cyclic loading. 52 CAD/CAM 1 2018