Table 1.

Details about the different surface conditioning methods used with the titanium alloy specimens.

Surface conditioning step	Description
Sandblasting (S)	Exposition to Al2O3 particles (50 µm, 2 bar, 5 s, approx. 1 cm distance)
Polishing (P)	Semiautomatic grinding and polishing machine (Tegramin 25; Struers). Pre-polishing: diamond discs (MD Piano #500, MD Piano #1200; Struers) Final polishing: diamond grains (3 µm, 1 µm, DiaPro; Struers) and polishing cloths (MD Nap; Struers)
Etching (E)	Etching solution: 10 g etching powder (sodium bisulfate [NaHSO4] and sodium fluoride [NaF]; Zirkonzahn, South Tyrol, Italy) dissolved in 100 ml distilled water Etching procedure: Swinging of specimens in the etching solution for 10 s, followed by rinsing of the specimens with distilled water. Etching and rinsing were carried out twice.
Anodization (A)	Titanium Spectral-Coloring Anodizer (Zirkonzahn) Anodizing solution: 5 g anodizing salt (ammonium sulfate [(NH4)2SO4]; Zirkonzahn, South Tyrol, Italy) dissolved in 250 ml distilled water. Anodizing procedure: The cathode was connected to the negative pole and the titanium specimens to the positive pole of a power supply and submerged in the anodizing solution. A voltage of 60 V was applied for 5 s, which should, according to manufacturer's information, result in a yellow-gold color of the titanium alloy specimen.