Finite Element Analysis of Different Thread Designs Using Adaptive Meshing

Objective: Purpose of this study was to simulate insertion of the implants with and without groove design and compare the stress pattern using 3-dimensional finite element analysis. Material and Method: In this experimental study, dental implants were scanned in micro-CT (Shimadzu SMX225CT), the data obtained was then transferred to Mimics (Materialise ver.12) for accurate measurements. The final 3-dimensional models of implants with and without grooves design were made by the measurement data obtained from Mimics software with the help of Patran (2010, MSC software). The implant design with grooves consists of grooves on the lower side of the implant threads, while the implant design without grooves has no grooves on the lower side of the implant threads. The bone and implant were represented as elastic-plastic and rigid body respectively. The angular speed of the implants is as available in the literature. The dental implants were inserted into a drilled cavity. The data was analyzed using Marc Mentat (2008 r1, MSC software). The total time for the insertion of the dental implants was 1.3 sec. The movements of both dental implants was analyzed and compared in relation to Von-Misses stress pattern. Results: In adaptive meshing there is continuous refining of the mesh to improve accuracy with minimal intervention by the analyst. Such that elements of bone around the implant increased and the size of the elements was changed during the implant insertion. Stresses were not continuous but intermittent as the implant was inserted into the bone. Two different thread designs showed slightly change of stress pattern in the bone. Discussion and Conclusion: Within the limitation of the study we could conclude, that dynamic meshing can be effectively used as a research tools in understanding various forces acting in vivo.