A disadvantageous stress/strain distribution of the occlusal forces in the bone surrounding the implant represents a potential risk factor for clinical failure of implant prostheses.
Aim: this study analyses the relevance of stress/strain fields distribution in bony tissue while loading a narrow, 3 mm in diameter dental implant.
Materials and method: a 3D finite element model was created, corresponding to a 3 mm in diameter and 12 mm long cylindrical implant, embeded in a linear elastic medium made up of distinct cortical and cancellous bone. Static loading was applied in axial (200 N) and buccolingual (150 N) direction. Computation was performed by ANSYS finite element software.
Results: static loading in 3 mm in diameter implants was developed in the supporting bone, the bone stress values exceeding Young’s modulus for the cancellous bone. A reverse relation was established between the diameter of the implant and the stresses generated in bone under loading. As far as the implant diameter becomes narrower, the value of the stresses developed in the bone rises substantially. As the structural displacements surpassed Young’s modulus in the area of the cancellous bone, any loading forces higher than those applied in our study might be risk factors.
Conclusion: under static loading of a narrow (3 mm in diameter) implant, the forces starting from 250 N (axially) and 150 N (horizontally) might generate stress/ strain fields, causing irreversible damage to the cancellous bone.
- narrow implant
- static loading
- stress/strain distribution.