The mini-implants have been successfully used as orthodontic bone anchorage, but the size reduction and the early load are required to improve the methodology. The purpose of this work was to evaluate the bone fixation evolution of the immediately loaded titanium grade 5 (Ti-6Al-4V alloy) mini-implants. Nine New Zealand rabbits were used in this study. Each rabbit had four mini-implants inserted in his left tibia and the two of them were immediately loaded with 1 N. The animals were euthanized after 1, 4 and 12 weeks and the sample were divided in six groups, in which three groups were loaded and the other three were unloaded. The removal torque test was done and the results were statistically analyzed by ANOVA and post hoc test Tukey. There were no statistically significant differences in the removal torque values after 1 and 4 weeks of healing, regardless the loading. Nevertheless, both unloaded and loaded group presented higher removal torque values after 12 weeks of healing and the unloaded group had the highest result. The immediate loading resulted in lower bone fixation of the mini-implants after 12 weeks of healing, although did not compromise the mini-implants’ stability.
Mini-implants; Ti-6Al-4V; Osseointegration
