Research Article In Vitro Evaluation of Leakage at Implant-Abutment Connection of Three Implant Systems Having the Same Prosthetic Interface Using Rhodamine B Antoine Berberi, 1 Georges Tehini, 1 Khaldoun Rifai, 1 Farah Bou Nasser Eddine, 2 Nabil El Zein, 2 Bassam Badran, 2 and Haidar Akl 2 1 School of Dentistry, Lebanese University, P.O. Box 4, Hadath, Lebanon 2 Ecole Doctorale, PRASE, Lebanese University, P.O. Box 4, Hadath, Lebanon Correspondence should be addressed to Antoine Berberi; anberberi@gmail.com Received 22 January 2014; Revised 27 March 2014; Accepted 10 April 2014; Published 11 May 2014 Academic Editor: Andreas Stavropoulos Copyright © 2014 Antoine Berberi et al. his is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Objectives. Hollow space between implant and abutment may act as reservoir for commensal and/or pathogenic bacteria representing a potential source of tissue inlammation. Microbial colonization of the interfacial gap may ultimately lead to infection and bone resorption. Using Rhodamine B, a sensitive luorescent tracer dye, we aim in this study to investigate leakage at implant- abutment connection of three implant systems having the same prosthetic interface. Materials and Methods. Twenty-one implants (seven Astra Tech, seven Euroteknika, and seven Dentium) with the same prosthetic interface were connected to their original abutments, according to the manufacturers’ recommendation. Ater determination of the inner volume of each implant systems, the kinetic quantiication of leakage was evaluated for each group using Rhodamine B (10 −2 M). For each group, spectrophotometric analysis was performed to detect leakage with a luorescence spectrophotometer at 1 h (T0) and 48 h (T1) of incubation time at room temperature. Results. Astra Tech had the highest inner volume (6.8 L), compared to Dentium (4 L) and Euroteknika (2.9 L). At T0 and T1, respectively, the leakage volume and percentage of each system were as follows: Astra Tech 0.043 L or 1.48% (SD 0.0022), 0.08 L or 5.56% (SD 0.0074), Euroteknika 0.09 L or 6.93% (SD 0.0913), 0.21 L or 20.55% (SD 0.0035), and Dentium 0.07 L or 4.6% (SD 0.0029), 0.12 L or 10.47% (SD 0.0072). Conclusion. he tested internal conical implant-abutment connections appear to be unable to prevent leakage. In average, Astra Tech implants showed the highest inner volume and the least leakage. 1. Introduction In two-stage implant therapy, screwing the abutment to the implant results in a gap between components. he implant- abutment gap, or inner space, acts as a bacterial reservoir having a degree of communication with the oral cavity, which could interfere with peri-implant tissue health and function [1–3]. Several adverse mechanical and biological consequences may occur. Mechanical complications such as increased incidence of abutment rotation [4–8], screw loosening [9, 10], and preload reduction [11] have been reported to occur with poorly adapted abutments. Biological complications such as mucositis [12] and bone loss [13, 14] have also been reported. In most implant systems, bidirectional exchange of luids takes place at the level of the alveolar bone crest and is considered to be an important factor for chronic inlammatory iniltration and marginal bone loss [1–3, 14–16]. Especially during function and under occlusal loading, micromovement between abutment and implant will create volumetrically variation in the inner space of the implant system [17–19]. Several investigators aimed to quantify bacterial leakage of diferent implant systems. hese studies investigated cor- puscular bacterial leakage [20–24] or small molecules like endotoxin, [25–27], toluidine blue [28], and gas low [29, 30]. Hindawi Publishing Corporation International Journal of Dentistry Volume 2014, Article ID 351263, 7 pages http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2014/351263