Numerical study of effect of elastomeric stress absorbers on stress reduction in bone-dental implant interface

OBJECTIVE: This paper focused on optimal stress distribution in the mandibular bone surrounding a dental implant and is devoted to the development of a modified Osteoplant(®) implant type in order to minimize stress concentration in the bone-implant interface. MATERIAL AND METHODS: This study investigated 0.4 mm thick layers of two elastomeric stress barriers incorporated into the dental implant using 3-D finite element analysis. RESULTS: Overall, this proposed implant provoked lower load transfer in bone-implant interface due to the effect of the elastomers as stress absorbers. The stress level in the bone was reduced between 28% and 42% for three load cases: 75 N, 60 N and 27 N in corono-apical, linguo-buccal and disto-mesial direction, respectively. CONCLUSION: The proposed model provided an acceptable solution for load transfer reduction to the mandible. This investigation also permitted to choose how to incorporate two elastomers into the Osteoplant(®) implant system.