Figure 1: Topographic changes and titanium particles produced by US scaling.

Three different titanium surfaces, including M, SLA, and SB, were treated with US scaling on half of the disc area. (a) The border was examined using SEM at ×300 magnification. (b) The areas on both sides of the midline were examined at ×1500 magnification. In each panel, the left side represents the original disc surface, while the right side shows the disc after treatment. (c) Titanium particles released during this process were visualized using SEM to estimate their micro-roughness, (d) the number of particles and (e) the size distribution of the particles, which were evaluated using an automated cell counter. The size distribution is shown as a percentage of the total number of particles that originated from each surface type. (f–h) Nanoroughness of particles was analyzed using atomic force microscopy (AFM). (f) Multiple line profiles were obtained for each particle type. (g) Slope, the fold-increase in linear distance and the average maximal distance between the highest and deepest points along 500 nm were calculated to determine particle nanoroughness. (h) Representative line profiles are shown for the different surfaces.