Aim: The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the effect of plasma nitride-treated abutment screws of two different implant systems on screw loosening and surface topography with and without thermocycling.
Settings and design: This was an in-vitro experimental study.
Materials and methods: Fifty-two abutment screws (Group A: 26 Genesis and Group B: 26 Bredent) underwent plasma nitride treatment and were subdivided into two groups, one without thermocycling and one with thermocycling. Dynamic load was applied and detorque values were evaluated for determining the screw loosening using "independent t-test" with the help of IBM SPSS Statistics 20 and scanning electron microscopy was done to check for surface topography.
Statistical analysis used: Inter- and intragroup comparisons were done using independent t-test (SPSS: Statistical Package for the Social Sciences software version 20).
Results: Plasma nitriding treatment genesis implant system abutment screw showed more screw loosening (P < 0.05) and surface roughness as compared to bredent with and without thermocycling.
Conclusion: From the present study, it was shown that plasma nitride-treated abutment screws decreased the occurrence of screw loosening favoring the bredent implant-abutment system more than the genesis implant-abutment system.
Keywords: Abutment screw treatment; bredent implant system; genesis implant system; plasma nitride treatment; screw loosening.