The Rockwell scale is the key to the selection of evidence-based instruments for dental implant maintenance.
As clinicians, we often face the decision to decide which dental equipments or instruments are best suited to our practice and patient needs.
Hygiene workers have different needs depending on their daily practice. As a health expert who specializes in the practice of dental implants, I have to find tools that can clean the surfaces of abutments, crowns, floss, and overdenture teeth without fear of scratching the surface of the restoration. These causes of bacterial adhesions can lead to peri-implantitis or worse, implant failure.
After the article is created, tool marks and scratches appear on the surface of the machine. Many of these surface defects can be reduced by polishing, tumbling, and electrolytic polishing, but surface defects may still exist. Implants have a higher risk of damage (and bacterial propensity) during construction than during cleaning, but I still want to reduce risk as much as possible.
I hope that there will be a set of tools to remove the biofilm and hard calculus on the implant without scratching the implant. If there is no unbiased research to support their claims, I cannot believe what the instrument manufacturers say. During my own research and clinical trials, I discovered American Eagle titanium implants.
Medical grade instrument
“America's Eagle Instruments is pushing medical-grade titanium to the implant maintenance market. Like me, educators and clinicians around the world want to prove that titanium is safe to use on dental implant surfaces. Measured with Rockwell Level C (HRC).
The Rockwell hardness tester developed by American metallurgist Stanley P. Rockwell is a "hardness scale based on material indentation hardness." Penetration resistance is related to the scratch resistance of the material and is critical when selecting which instrument to choose during maintenance of the implant. We want to avoid leaving trace elements on the surface of the instrument to avoid changing the biocompatibility.
Because the plastic instrument is softer than titanium, the Rockwell B standard (HRB) is used to accurately compare titanium. The plastic implant instrument on the Rockwell B scale reads 11.8. The HRB value needs to reach about 100 to reach the value equivalent to the American Eagle titanium scaler.
In 2013, American Eagle Instrument Company conducted clinical trials to prove that their titanium instruments were indeed softer than titanium implants. A comparative analysis of American eagle implant instruments and instruments from most of the leading manufacturers determines the HRC value. Not all commercially available titanium instruments are measured, but the cross section of the main manufacturer is used as the sample size.
The initial trial concluded that the U.S. eagle and most of the other leading manufacturers tested were actually harder than implanted HRC values and could result in scratches. In response, American Eagles decided to design a titanium device that is softer than most implant substrates in the market, but it is rigid enough to remove biofilm and tartar without damaging the implant surface.
Titanium is very malleable, so these dental supplies can be hardened or softened to ensure that its proper value on the Rockwell C scale is softer than the implant itself. The base of the American Eagle titanium instrument needs to be softened to avoid scratches. It was decided to completely switch the substrate to commercially pure (CP) Ti-4 instead of softening Ti, which may impair the integrity of the instrument.
This new substrate may have a lower HRC value than the implant but is still strong enough to be effective. The original American Eagle Titanium instrument model had an HRC value of 31.9. The HTC value of the CP Ti4 grade instrument was found to be 23, demonstrating that the redesigned titanium implant instrument minimizes or eliminates the risk of bacterial contamination due to scratches on the implant.
