COMPARISON OF INSERTION ANGULATIONS MEASURED VIA BONE-TO-IMPLANT CONTACT OF MINI-SCREWS USING MICRO-CT

Abstract

Bone-to-implant contact of orthodontic mini-screws has been determined via Micro-CT to be a strong predictor of primary stability. Various insertion angulations, including both 900 and 500, have been reported as ideal for providing optimum primary stability. The aim of this investigation was to determine if a statistically significant difference exists in the bone-to-implant contact of mini-screws placed with an insertion angulation of 900 compared to those placed at 500 as determined via Micro-CT. Ten self-drilling, self-tapping orthodontic mini-screws (Aarhus,1.5mmx6mm) (n=5) were inserted into the posterior ramus of an adult pig mandible, an analog to an adult human mandible. A custom stent with ten holes, five at 900 and five at 500, was fitted to the bone surface to control insertion angulation. The bone was cut to 1.5x1.5x1cm segments and scanned using SkyScan 1127 with ideal specifications (8mm pixel size, medium camera, 80Kv, 100mA, 10W, 1800 rotation, and 0.5Al+0.25Cu filter). The raw scans were reconstructed using NReconV1.6.10 and these datasets were then reoriented using DataviewerV1.5.2 along the Z-axis to standardize the peri-implant bone for analysis. A custom task-list was used with CT-AnalyzerV1.14.41 to determine the percent of bone-to-implant contact per mini-screw. A Mann-Whitney U test indicated that the bone-to-implant contact was not statistically significantly different for the mini-screws placed at 900 (Mdn= 72.34) compared to the mini-screws placed at 500 (Mdn= 53.25), U=5, p=.1443. Therefore, the results do not significantly differ at p<.05. There is no statistically significant difference in the bone-to-implant contact between the Aarhus 1.5mmx6mm orthodontic mini-screws placed at 900 compared to those placed at 500 as measured by Micro-CT. This may lead to the conclusion that there is no significant difference in the primary stability of Aarhus mini-screws placed at 900 and 500.