An overview of the mechanical integrity of dental implants

Conferencia del Programa "RETOS" del CENIMWith the growing use of dental implants, so grows the incidence of implants’ failures. Late treatment complications, after reaching full osseointegration and functionality, include mechanical failures, such as fracture of the implant and its components. Those complications are deemed severe in dentistry, albeit usually considered as rare, and therefore seldom addressed in the clinical literature. The introduction of dental implants into clinical practice fostered a wealth of research on their biological aspects. By contrast, mechanical strength and reliability issues were seldom investigated in the open literature, so that most of the information to date remains essentially with the manufacturers. Over the years, dental implants have gone through major changes regarding the material, the design, and the surface characteristics aimed at improving osseointegration. Did those changes improve the implants’ mechanical performance? This talk will present our results on various aspects of the mechanical integrity and failure of dental implantsN