Microstructural simulations of the bone surrounding dental implants by means of a stochastically generated frame model

The biomechanical behaviour of a dental implant plays an important role in its functional longevity inside the bone. Occlusal forces affect the bone surrounding an oral implant. To avoid fracture and bone resorption – by achieving the most even stress distribution in the bone – implants should be applied that transfer occlusal forces to the bone within physiologic limits with geometry capable to enhance bone formation. The following study deals with the trabecular bone substance especially surrounding dental implants considering the microscopic conformation of the bone. The dental surgical use of a formerly developed stochastically generated frame model of the trabecular bone is introduced, which is created by interlinking a stochastically generated set of nodes in a certain domain, according to a previously defi ned linking-rule. The finite element model possesses the geometrical and mechanical microstructural properties – obtained from literature – of the trabecular bone substance of an average man from the edentulous mandibular region. The fi nite element beam model was submitted to compression, shear and torsion tests, and the macro-structural elastic properties were computed from the result data obtained by means of fi nite element analysis. The thus received frame model was combined with the finite element model of the cortical bone layer in the mandible (lower jaw bone) and a dental implant, where the incompleteness of the bone-implant interface was taken into account. DOI: 10.17489/biohun/2010/1/1