The surface of commercial unalloyed titanium, used in dental implants, was analyzed by atomic force microscopy. The morphology, roughness, and surface area of the samples, submitted to mechanically-induced erosion, chemical etching and a combination of both, were compared. The results show that surface treatments strongly influence the dental implant physical and chemical properties. An analysis of the length dependence of the implant surface roughness shows that, for scan sizes larger than 50 mum, the average surface roughness is independent of the scanning length and that the surface treatments lead to average surface roughness in the range of 0.37 up to 0.48 mum. It is shown that the implant surface energy is sensitive to the titanium surface area. As the area increases there is a decrease in the surface contact angle. (C) 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.