This study investigated whether surface topography affects the retentive strength of cemented full crowns, comparing the effects of standard machined, sandblasted, and grooved implant abutments. Five metallic crowns per abutment type were cast and cemented with zinc phosphate. After 24 hours, the specimens were submitted to a tensile test. The retentive strength of the cemented crowns was affected by abutment surface topography. The sandblasted and grooved surface groups had approximately 2.4 times greater mean uniaxial retentive strength than the machined surface group (P .001). The retentive strength of the sandblasted and grooved abutments was similar, despite marked differences in surface profiles and roughness parameters.