## 4 Discussion
[PERSON] et al. demonstrated in an in vivo study that the pore geometry influences colonization by blood vessels, due to the pore size and shape having a critical role in guiding cell behavior [38]. This influence was also demonstrated by [PERSON] et al. [39] in an in vitro study growing mouse calvaria cells over hydroxyapatite ceramics with different macro groove shapes, which foundthat the organization and growth are promoted by a tight closure angle of the substrate geometry. These authors described higher numbers of cells attached to grooved ceramics compared to flat controls, suggesting that the microarchitecture promoted adhesion to the surface. These results are in agreement with our findings when comparing the two surfaces (mechanized and RBM) without NTLP-ArP treatment. The results also agree when comparing both surfaces after NTLP-ArP treatment, demonstrating that the micromorphology affects the BIC values. Nonetheless, the micromorphology not only influences the tissue response but also the physical stimuli produced on the surface by NTLP-ArP without altering the surface topography. The most important factors affecting the complex process of the integration of dental implants to the alveolar bone are the physical and chemical properties of the surface of the dental implant. Thus, the surface of a dental implant possesses important characteristics that play a crucial role in bone deposition and consequent healing and osseointegration. The development of NTLP-ArP allows for cleaning the implant surface while modifying the surface properties without altering their micro-design [40]. This improvement has meant that mechanized surfaces can have a potential for osseointegration similar to that of rough surfaces, but without their drawbacks. Our study focused on demonstrating whether there were differences between mechanized implant surfaces and those treated with RBM, both of them treated or not with NTLP-ArP, by comparing the BIC% at three different time intervals: one week, two weeks, and four weeks after implant placement. Our results showed better BIC% when the surfaces were treated with NTLP-ArP in both mechanized and RBM surfaces. Surprisingly, the results of the mechanized surfaces treated with NTLP-ArP were similar to RBM surfaces without plasma in BIC values. The data obtained in this study are in agreement with other results published in previous animal studies, where NTLP-ArP has been shown to improve the properties of implant surfaces [41], as well as other studies that confirm the results obtained in cell cultures [13; 42]. The fact to highlight in our results is that the behavior of every experimental group was similar during the first week. This may be explained due to the nonspecific healing that occurred in the initial stages. These results improved both in the second and the fourth week. The differences between the experimental groups again underscore the improvement with NTLP-ArP application in both surfaces, mechanized and resorbable blast media (RBM), at any point in time. Finally, it should be mentioned that the beneficial effects of NTLP-ArP not only appear on titanium surfaces but have also been described on different substrates [31; 35; 36]. [PERSON] et al. also evaluated the effect of thermal treatment of Ti6 Al4V dental implants on bone healing in rabbits, showing results in agreement with our statements, and concluding that the surfaces modified by thermal treatment improve the bioactivity and BIC, a fact that clinically means a shortening in the implant healing period, especially in areas with low-density bone [43]. Our study could present some limitations, such as the rapid healing in animals, which can make a difference to humans. It is also limited by the follow-up time, which, in our case, lasted up to four weeks. It would be interesting to evaluate the results at a longer follow-up time to check the stability of the results.