Evaluation of Stress Distribution and Force in External Hexagonal Implant: A 3-D Finite Element Analysis

To analyze the stress distribution and the direction of force in external hexagonal implant with crown in three different angulations.

A total of 60 samples of geometric models were used to analyze von Mises stress and direction of force with 0-, 5-, and 10-degree lingual tilt. Von Mises stress and force distribution were evaluated at nodes of hard bone, and finite element analysis was performed using ANSYS 12.1 software. For calculating stress distribution and force, we categorized and labeled the groups as Implant A1, Implant A2, and Implant A3, and Implant B1, Implant B2, and Implant B3 with 0-, 5-, and 10-degree lingual inclinations, respectively. Inter- and intra-group comparisons were performed using ANOVA test. A p-value of ≤0.05 was considered statistically significant.

In all the three models, overall maximum stress was found in implant model A3 on the implant surface (86.61), and minimum was found on model A1 in hard bone (26.21). In all the three models, the direction of force along three planes was maximum in DX (0.01025) and minimum along DZ (0.002) direction with model B1.

Maximum von Mises stress and the direction of force in axial direction was found at the maximum with the implant of 10 degrees angulation. Thus, it was evident that tilting of an implant influences the stress concentration and force in external hex implants.