Design of Transducers for Resonance Frequency Measurement to assess the Dental Implant Stability in vitro

Abstract

The objective of the present study is to assess the performance of various designs of a transducer for determining the Dental Implant stability using Resonance Frequency Analysis (RFA) technique. Three different designs of the transducer have been presented in this article. The resonance frequency response of each transducer design was measured and analyzed in vitro. For this purpose, the transducer was attached to the implant with the help of a screw and this was placed in the dental plaster mixture. The dental plaster mixture gradually hardens with time resulting in a change in the resonance frequency of the system. Analysis of the results helps in identification of the transducer design showing more consistent results as compared to the other two designs. The proposed transducer initially shows a slight increase in RF, followed by a fall of the RF as the dental plaster hardens. Subsequently, the RF slightly increases to a nearby high value, finally becoming steady.

Monitoring the Change in Resonance Frequency of a Dental Implant in Hardening Dental Plaster Using Microcontroller

“…Sensing Methodology [1] The sensor that is used to measure the implant stability consists of a two terminal disc type piezo of thickness 12mm and diameter 2cm that is glued using Araldite to a metal The material used for the metallic strip is aluminum of thickness 2mm, length 30mm and width within 5 to 6mm. During in-vivo measurements of the stability of the dental implant, this sensor is screwed to the implant, which has been placed into the human jaw by the dental surgeon, using its healing screw [5]. However for in-vitro trials, the implant is placed in a dental plaster mixture of known consistency.…”

“…In-vitro experimental studies were conducted to test the performance of the instrumentation system using the standard procedure reported in [5], [6]. For this, a dental plaster mixture is made by mixing 4gm of dental plaster powder in 3cc of water.…”

“…For this, a dental plaster mixture is made by mixing 4gm of dental plaster powder in 3cc of water. Thereafter, the sensor, along with the implant screwed to it, is suspended from a horizontal beam into the inner hollow cavity of a pre-designed circular block containing the dental plaster mixture just prepared, as shown in Fig 1. As in [5], in this study also a sinusoidal 1V peak to peak voltage of variable frequency within 1kHz to 20kHz is used to electrically energize the piezo sensor. This input signal generates a mechanical vibration which is transmitted to the dental implant.…”