Healing Pattern Analysis for Dental Implants Using the Mechano-Regulatory Tissue Differentiation Model

Abstract

(1) Background: Our aim is to reveal the influence of the geometry designs on biophysical stimuli and healing patterns. The design guidelines for dental implants can then be provided. (2) Methods: A two-dimensional axisymmetric finite element model was developed based on mechano-regulatory algorithm. The history of tissue differentiation around eight selected implants can be predicted. The performance of the implants was evaluated by bone area (BA), bone-implant contact (BIC); (3) Results: The predicted healing patterns have very good agreement with the experimental observation. Many features observed in literature, such as soft tissues covering on the bone-implant interface; crestal bone loss; the location of bone resorption bumps, were reproduced by the model and explained by analyzing the solid and fluid biophysical stimuli and (4) Conclusions: The results suggested the suitable depth, the steeper slope of the upper flanks, and flat roots of healing chambers can improve the bone ingrowth and osseointegration. The mechanism related to solid and fluid biophysical stimuli were revealed. In addition, the model developed here is efficient, accurate and ready to extend to any geometry of dental implants. It has potential to be used as a clinical application for instant prediction/evaluation of the performance of dental implants.

Prediction of Bone Healing around Dental Implants in Various Boundary Conditions by Deep Learning Network

“…Its applicability is greatly improved compared with the methods used in other works. For example, the prediction efficiency is significantly improved compared to the work conducted by Li et al [1], so that the prediction of bone healing can be achieved in real time. In contrast, Marin et al [24] performed a conventional in vivo animal test to examine the effect of bone ingrowth in various implant designs, which took 35 days and required extensive preparation to obtain histomorphologic images.…”

“…The bone healing process is difficult to be observed in clinical experiments. In the past, the healing performance of dental implants could only be observed through histomorphologic images [1] and CT images [2]. However, the methods cannot continuously observe the process of bone growth due to the high cost, as well as they often require the sacrifice of animals.…”

“…On the other hand, numerical empirical equations were proposed to describe the behavior of bone ingrowth [8,9] as an alternative. The mechano-regulation algorithm is one of the commonly used approaches to predict tissue differentiation in the short-term bone healing process [10,11], which reveals the effect of implant geometry on the performance of bone healing, giving the design guidelines for the implant's geometry [1]. Various implant designs are used in the literature, including features such as platform-switched, double-threaded, and tapered body.…”

Application of finite element analysis to tissue differentiation and bone remodelling approaches and their use in design optimization of orthopaedic implants: A review

“…Several research groups across the globe have used this approach to analyze fracture healing, 38–41 osteochondral defect healing 42,43 and implant‐bone interfacial tissue differentiation 2,4,5,44–49 with subtle modifications. Inclusion of cellular events such as cell proliferation, cell necrosis/apoptosis, 39,42,43,50 formation of ECM and tissue degradation 51 were formulated based on this mechanobiological model.…”

Mechanical micromodeling of stress-shielding at the bone-implant interphase under shear loading

“…For the bone domain, mature cortical bone with a Young's modulus value of Eb = 20 GPa was considered as a reference [44], and less mature bone configurations (1 to 10 GPa) were also simulated, to investigate the temporal evolution of the material properties during healing [14,38]. The impact of the implant's material properties on stress shielding phenomena was investigated via two different materials employed in orthopedic applications: a reference Titanium alloy (Ti-6Al-4V) with a Young's modulus E of 113 GPa [46] and a metal-polymer composite (Ti-35BPA) with E = 20 GPa [49].…”