Measurement of the Fatigue Life of Mini Dental Implants: A Pilot Study

Abstract

The fatigue life of mini or small-diameter dental implants is of particular interest because these implants are used to retain and support fixed and removable dental prostheses. The fatigue life of an implant depends on both the implant itself as well as on the physical properties of the bone. However, the capability to predict the fatigue life of a newly placed implant is currently inexistent. This pilot study represents the first step in developing such a methodology and focuses on the design of a cost-effective device to measure the fatigue life of a dental implant. In our measurements, the implant has been mounted in an essentially rigid support, but test specimens can also be bone mounted in vitro. Furthermore, we developed a finite element-based computer model capable of predicting the corresponding fatigue life. The finite element analysis was performed in ABAQUS, and the results predicted by the model correlated fairly well with our initial experimental results. Most of the 2-mm diameter implants fractured after more than a million cycles.

A Pilot Study of Mini Implants as a Treatment Option for Prosthetic Rehabilitation of Ridges with Sub-Optimal Bone Volume

“…Flanagan [8][9][10][11][12][13][14] a proponent of the mini dental implants argues that there are implant diameters available from 1.8 to 7 mm. Intuitively a smaller diameter implant may present less of an impediment or obstacle for angiogenesis to the peri-implant bone.…”

“…In these cases, the occlusion, a reduced vertical dimension and ridge length can present a dimensional problem for space. Very small diameter implants can fit into many of these atrophic sites with adequate inter-implant and inter-occlusal spacing [8][9][10][11][12][13][14].…”

“…In the past decade, many implants ranging from 1.8 to 2.5 mm in diameter have been promoted for long-term applications [1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14].…”

experimental verification of the two component implant optimization results in context of fatigue life

“…The fatigue tests of the prototype and initial design have been carried out using Locati method of an accelerated fatigue testing. The used method has been successfully applied to quality control fatigue tests of glass fibre reinforced plastics [5], metallic materials and components [9] and research using thermography [25]. In order to carry out the tests, the simplified prototype ( Fig.…”

“…Additionally, it should be taken into account that nowadays, market competition and patients' demands force the producers to introduce the new or modified design in very short design cycles. Therefore, there is the need to develop of the efficient procedure for fatigue fracture risk minimization.Many researchers undertake the implant failure problem using laboratory tests [7,9,10,11,13,20,23,27,29,31,32] and numerical approach [17]. Among the others, special attention should be paid to the studies done by Wierszycki [38] and Ilies [20].…”