Finite element analysis for interfacial stress and fatigue behaviors of biomimetic titanium implant under static and dynamic loading conditions.

Objective: To investigate the stress distributions on implant-bone interface and fatigue behaviors of biomimetic titanium implant under static and dynamic loading conditions to provide theoretical basis for a new implant which may effectively transfer the stress to surrounding bones.

Methods: A 3-D finite element model of a posterior mandible segment with an implant bone was constructed by a CAD (Pro/E Widefire 2.0) software. Two different implant models (a dense implant No.1 and a biomimetic implant No.2) were designed. The stress distributions on bone-implant interface under dynamic and static loading conditions were analyzed by Ansys Workbench 10.0 software, as well as the fatigue behavior of the biomimetic implant.

Results: The cervical cortical bones in the 2 implants were all high stress region under the same loading condition. The maximum von Mises stress on the interface and high-stress region in the cancellous bone region, and the maximum stress in the root region of the biomimetic implant were lower than those of the dense implant. The stress on the implant-bone interface decreased from the top to the bottom. The stress in the cervical cortical bone under the dynamic loading was 17.15% higher than that of the static loading. There was no significant difference in maximum stress at the cortical bone region between the dynamic and static loading conditions. The maximum stress of the dense implant in the cancellous bone region was 75.97% higher and that in the root region was 22.46% higher than that of the biomimetic implant. The maximum stress on the implant-bone interface was far less than the yield strength of pure titanium. The stress distribution in the cortical region of the biomimetic implant was 7.85% higher than that of the dense implant, and the maximum stress in the cortical bone was smaller than the yield stress of cortical bone. Within the dynamic loading of 50-300 N, the safety coefficient was all higher than 10, and with the increase of loading pressure, interface stress in the cancellous region increased linearly. Under the loading of 300 N in the axial and 25 N in the lingual 45:, the maximum stress was 11.38 MPa.

Conclusion: Biomimetic style implant can effectively transfer the implant-bone interface stress to surrounding bones in the cancellous bone and root region, and the structure with the improved design is safe under normal loading pressure.