CRANIOFACIAL OSSEOINTEGRATED IMPLANT-INDUCED STRAIN DISTRIBUTION - A NUMERICAL STUDY

Strain distributions that occur in the hard tissue in the region surro unding craniofacial osseointegrated implants are compared. Three comme rcially available implant designs were evaluated under bob axial loadi ng and axial loading with a moment in three bone configurations typica l of the craniofacial region. The evaluations that used the finite ele ment method indicated that for axial loading, the implant designs prod uced similar strain levels in each hone configuration. When moments as well as vertical loads were applied, the strains were three to seven times higher and variations among the designs were greater. The variat ions found were related to the amount of bone present in each situatio n, as well as the neck diameter of the implant involved.