Effect of cancellous bone on the functionally graded dental implant concept

In a previous work by the author [H.S. Hedia and M. Nemat-Alla, Design optimization of functionally graded dental implant, submitted to be published in the J. Bio-Medical Materials and Engineering], a functionally graded material dental implant was designed without cansellous bone in the model. In this investigation the effect of presence cancellous bone as a thin layer around the dental implant was investigated. It is well known that the main inorganic component of natural bone is hydroxyapatite (HAP) and that the main organic component is collagen (Col). Hydroxyapatite HAP implants are not bioabsorbable, and because induction of bone into and around the artificially made HAP is not always satisfactory, loosening or breakage of HAP implants may occur after implantation in the clinical application. The development of a new material which is bioabsorbable and which has osteoconductive activity is needed. Therefore, the aim of the current investigation is to design an implant, in the presence of cancellous bone as a thin layer around it, from functionally graded material. In this study, a novel biomaterial, collagen/hydroxyapatite (Col/HAP) as a functionally graded material (FGM), was developed using the finite element and optimization techniques which are available in the ANSYS package. These materials have a self-organized character similar to that of natural bone. The investigations have shown that the maximum stress in the cortical bone and cancellous bone for the Col/HAP functionally graded implant has been reduced by about 40% and 19% respectively compared to currently used titanium dental implants.