This study investigated the corrosion resistance and cell adhesion behavior of titanium nitride (TiN)-coated and ion-nitrided Ti substrates for dental applications. The TiN-coated specimen surface layer contained a TiN/Ti structure, while the ion-nitrided specimen contained a Ti2N/TiN/Ti structure. The polarization curves in artificial saliva showed that the corrosion rate and passive current for the specimens ranked as: untreated Ti > ion-nitrided Ti > TiN-coated Ti. The polarization resistance obtained from the electrochemical impedance spectroscopy ranked as: TiN-coated Ti > ion-nitrided Ti > untreated Ti. After 24 h osteoblast-like U-2 OS cell incubation on the specimens, the attached cell number occurred in the order: TiN-coated Ti > ion-nitrided Ti > untreated Ti. The TiN-coating and ion-nitriding treatments can improve the corrosion resistance and cell adhesion behavior of Ti. (c) 2004 Published by Elsevier B.V.