Finite element analysis of the effect of porosity on biomechanical behaviour of functionally graded dental implant

Abstract

The disparity between the bone's and the dental implant's stiffness generates problems for patients, such as implant failure, bone resorption and patient discomfort. The idea of functionally graded materials (FGM) is inspired by biological structures since variations within bones exhibit a functional gradation trend. Consequently, using FGM improves biocompatibility, fracture toughness and wear resistance. Furthermore, a porous FGM implant was proposed to reduce stress shielding and enhance bone ingrowth qualities. In the present work, a three-dimensional finite element is proposed to explore the effects of porous FGM dental implant on the stress distribution around the bone and the dental implant interface. ABAQUS software's UMAT subroutines serve as tools in this study to specify material properties along with dental implant coordinates of points. A parametric analysis is carried out to emphasize the impact of material characteristics, volume fraction index and porosity distribution on stress transmission on the dental implant and surrounding bones. The research provided strong evidence that dental implants composed of porous FGM have the potential to achieve early stabilization compared to traditional implants made solely of pure titanium. The graded design of the FGM implants promotes better adhesion between the implant, surrounding bone and abutment, leading to a reduction in micromotions and an enhancement of the implant's primary stability. Owing to a lack of comparable findings in the specialist literature, this work is expected to fill a gap in the state-of-the-art of FGM implants and give pertinent results that could be useful to dental implant design.