The influence of saliva and its substitutes on corrosion of some implant alloys

The purpose of this paper is evaluation of the influence of human saliva and its substitutes on the corrosion re sistance of some implant alloys used in stomatology, which included: austenitic steel (316L), titanium alloy (Ti6Al4V), and cobalt alloy (CoCrMo). Corrosion studies were conducted by means of the potentiodynamic method with the application of the VoltaLab 21 kit with VoltaMaster 4 software. The reference electrode was a saturated calomel electrode (SCE), whereas the counter electrode was a platinum electrode. The results of conducted studies indicate an increased current density in the passive range on potentiodynamic curves of studied alloys in the envi- ronment of human saliva, and also in a commercial saliva solution – Mucinox. On the basis of conducted corrosion studies, it can be stated that in terms of corrosion resistance the developed saliva substitutes may constitute competitive solutions to commercial saliva substitutes. The prepared substitutes should be studied further from the perspective of practical application for patients. The original value of the paper is a proposition of new saliva substitutes.