Strain based in vitro analysis of dental implant using artificial bone model and validation by numerical technique

Dental implant fails due to mechanical failure of the implant contribute to about 10-15 % of implant failures. It is necessary to prevent the design failure of the implant since it leads to bone loss which further leads to complications in reimplantation. This makes it important to test the design of a dental implant using FEM and in vitro testing before its application. The purpose of this article is to test the design of a dental implant using in vitro testing by using an artificial bone model and validation of the data using Finite Element Method (FEM).

A dental implant was selected for in vitro testing and 3D FE analysis was conducted to observe the stress values. The in vitro study was done on a custom designed testing rig where the implant was drilled into a ABS and sawbone (polyurethane) bone model. Vertical and lateral loads of 100 N and 40 N respectively, were applied to evaluate the micro-strains using strain gauge technique. 3D FEA technique was used to evaluate stress concentrations and micro-strains in the bone-implant interface.

The strain values were found to be higher in the case of lateral loading than vertical loading with in vitro testing. The von-mises stresses on the cortical bone were greater at the bone-implant interface near the neck region of the implant.

The results obtained from the in vitro analysis and FEA were found to have a good agreement with an error percentage of 2-5 %.