Biomechanical finite element analysis of small diameter and short dental implant

Abstract

Short and mini dental implants have been widely used as treatment alternatives in certain selected clinical situations. However, a profound scientific analysis of the mechanical and biomechanical impact of the reduced length and diameter of these implant geometries has not been published until now. Using finite element analysis, a series of different experimentally designed short and mini implants have been analysed with regard to their load transfer to the alveolar bone and have been compared to respective standard commercial implants. Mini implants have been inserted in an idealised bone bed representing the anterior mandibular jaw region and loaded with a force of 150 N. An immediate loading condition was assumed and analysed using the contact analysis option of the FE package MSC.Marc/Mentat. Short implants were inserted in an idealised posterior bone segment and loaded in osseointegrated state with forces of 300 N. Clearly increased bone loading was observed for the short and mini dental implants compared with standard implants, clearly exceeding the physiological limit of 100 MPa. The determined biomechanical characteristics could explain the slightly increased failure rate of short and mini dental implants.

Biomechanical investigations of the secondary stability of commercial short dental implants in porcine ribs

“…The previous numerical studies of Hasan et al [11] and Bourauel et al [4] showed that strains in cancellous bone as well as stresses in cortical bone were remarkably higher with short implants than with standard ones. Compared with the numerical displacement ( Table 2).…”

Influence of superstructure geometry on the mechanical behavior of zirconia implant abutments: a finite element analysis

“…Recently, a higher number of FE studies on dental implantology have been published [6,14,22,23]. Some of these studies aimed at investigating the influence of the abutment geometry on the peri-implant stress distribution [3,24].…”

The influence of the connection, length and diameter of an implant on bone biomechanics

“…These designs are predominantly standard, long, short, wide or narrow types of implants [2]. Depending on the manufacturer, these implants are available in different shapes and configurations, with various thread depths [35].…”

“…Some authors [83,84] have claimed that one factor related to implant failure is the length, with the risk of failure being higher when the implant is smaller; other researchers [2,8,12,52,85,86] have stated that short implants produce higher stress and strain over the bone because of the smaller contact area at the implant-bone interface in combination with a less homogenous stress distribution [35]. Rubo and Capello Souza [87] showed that the stress decreased 14% when the implant length increased from 10 mm to 13 mm.…”

“…Many types of implants are available, which have different external designs, surfaces, platforms, connections, diameters and lengths [2]. This extensive range of options should be analyzed biomechanically by the clinician, according to the biological and anatomical conditions of each patient.…”