Comparison of titanium and FGM dental implants with different coating types

Abstract

Despite their proven record in promoting osseointegration, titanium and titanium alloys present certain other challenges to providing an optimal dental implant. Titanium and suitable titanium alloys have a higher stiffness than human bone, and therefore dental implants formed from such materials absorb most of the forces of mastication. This can lead to a phenomenon known as a stress shielding of the surrounding bone. A variety of bioceramics have been developed and used in different implants due to their excellent biological performance. However, only a few of them have been used in clinical applications, especially in low load bearing implants, due to their poor mechanical strength. Little existing research has been reported for the design of dental implants made of FGM materials. However, many researchers have studied the effect of improving the dental implant surface by coating its surface with different materials including functionally graded materials (FGM). On the other hand, the effect of coating the FGM dental implant with a homogenous material has not been studied yet. The main goal of this work is to compare the biomechanical behavior of three types of dental implant models. Three dimensional models are created. The first model is a homogenous dental implant with a homogenous coating material. The second model represents a homogenous dental implant with a FGM coating and. the third model is a functionally graded implant with a homogenous coating material. The FGM implant with homogenous coating appears as the most suitable model. It reduces the bone stress on cancellous bone by 4.6 % and by 6.5 % on cortical bone compared to homogenous implant with homogenous coating. This leads to reduction of bone stress shielding as well as reduction of the aseptic loosening of bone/implant/coating interfaces which increase the life time of the implant.