INFLUENCE OF IMPLANT-ABUTMENT INTERFACE DESIGN, IMPLANT DIAMETER AND PROSTHETIC TABLE WIDTH ON STRENGTH OF IMPLANT-ABUTMENT INTERFACE : THREE-DIMENSIONAL FINITE ELEMENT ANALYSIS

Statement of problem. Higher incidence of prosthetic complications such as screw loosening, screw fracture has been reported for posterior single tooth implant. So, there is ongoing research regarding stability of implant-abutment interface. One of those research is increasing the implant diameter and prosthetic table width to improve joint stability. In another part of this research, internal conical type implant-abutment interface was developed and reported joint strength is higher than traditional external hex interface. Purpose. The purpose of this study is to compare stress distribution in single molar implant between external hex butt joint implant and internal conical joint implant when increasing the implant diameter and prosthetic table width : 4mm diameter, 5mm diameter, 5mm diameter/6mm prosthetic table width. Material and method. Non-linear finite element models were created and the 3-dimensional finite element analysis was performed to see the distribution of stress when 300N static loading was applied to model at off-axis angle. Results. The following results were obtained : 1. Internal conical joint showed lower tensile stress value than that of external hex butt joint. 2. When off-axis loading was applied, internal conical joint showed more effective stress distribution than external hex butt joint. 3. External hex butt joint showed lower tensile stress value when the implant diameter was increased. 4. Internal conical joint showed lower tensile stress value than external hex butt joint when the implant diameter was increased. 5. Both of these joint mechanism showed lower tensile stress value when the prosthetic table width was increased. Conclusion. Internal conical joint showed more effective stress distribution than external hex joint. Increasing implant diameter showed more effective stress distribution than increasing prosthetic table width