Biomechanical Influence of Implant Neck Designs on Stress Distribution over Adjacent Bone: A Three-Dimensional Non-Linear Finite Element Analysis

Abstract

The design of dental implant body has a major influence on the stress dissipation over adjacent bone as numbers of implant failure cases reported in past clinical studies. Besides, the inappropriate implant features may cause excessive high or low stresses which could possibly contribute to pathologic bone resorption or atrophy. The aim of this study is to evaluate the effect of different configurations of implant neck on stress dispersion within the adjacent bone via three-dimensional (3-D) finite element analysis (FEA). A set of computed tomography (CT) images of craniofacial was used to reconstruct a 3-D model of mandible using an image-processing software. The selected region of interest was the left side covering the second premolar, first molar and second molar regions. The bone model consisted of both compact (cortical) and porous (cancellous) structures. Three dental implant sets (crown, implant body, and abutment) with different designs of implant neck – straight, tapered with 15°, and tapered with 30° were modelled using a computer-aided design (CAD) software and all models were then analysed via 3-D FEA software. Top surface of first molar crown was subjected to occlusal forces of 114.6 N, 17.2 N, and 23.4 N in the axial, lingual, and mesio-distal directions, respectively. All planes of the mandible model were rigidly constrained in all directions. The result has demonstrated that the straight implant body neck is superior in attributing to high stress generation over adjacent bone as compared to others. This may associate with lower frictional resistance produced than those of tapered designs to withstand the applied loads.