INFLUENCE OF ABUTMENT GEOMETRY ON THE MICROGAP SIZE IN THE CONICAL CONNECTION

Abstract

BACKGROUND: To provide prosthetics for patients on implants, dentists resort to using not only original, but also non-original suprastructures. Previously, the authors carried out an finite element analysis, which showed that the size of the microgap of the conical connection depends on the choice of abutments, which affects the condition of the marginal bone around the implant. AIMS: to find out the factor that distinguishes the original and non-original abutments and largely influences the size of the microgap in the conical connection. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The experiment involved implants and standard abutments of Straumann BL, BioHorizons Tapered Internal and Nobel Biocare CC implant systems, and non-original abutments of ADM Dental. At the first stage of the experiment, four main factors were identified: the material of the screw and abutment, the geometry of the screw and abutment. The calculations were based on data from the authors' previous research and were carried out through the ANSYS Workbench using the finite element analysis. The second stage of the study was carried out on the microtomography complex “Neoscan 80”, where, in order to clarify the geometric features of the samples, the size of the microgap and the length of the conical generatrices between the constituent elements were measured. RESULTS: We can talk about the predominant influence of the abutment geometry on the micro-gap of the conical connection of Straumann and BioHorizons. In Nobel, the width of the microgap depends largely on the geometry of the abutment screw. Measurements of the microtomographic complex determined the difference in the length of the conical “implant-abutment” components for Straumann (0.1 mm) and BioHorizons (0.07 mm), and did not determine it between the original and non-original abutment for Nobel. The conical generatrix of the screw with the original Nobel abutment is smaller than with the non-original one. CONCLUSIONS: As a result of the study, it was determined that the choice between the original and non-original suprastructure has a greater influence on the size of the microgap of the conical connection due to the different geometric configuration of the abutment, in particular, the geometry of its fixing screw.