Fatigue Life Prediction of Commercial Dental Implant Using Analytical Approach and Verification by FEA

Dental implants are nowadays commonly used as replacement for natural teeth when natural teeth get damaged due to injury, infection or old age. Despite high success rates of implantation, complications and failures of implants still occur. The aim of this study is to predict fatigue life of commercially available implant system using FEA and verification by analytical method. Implant is basically a mechanical screw made of titanium alloy Ti–6Al–4V with threads on its periphery. A three-dimensional finite element model (FE model) of implant prosthesis (implant, abutment, fitting screw and crown) is modeled using linear isotropic material properties for implant, abutment, cortical bone and cancellous bone using commercial software code. Occlusal load (vertical and lateral) on teeth is applied as static load on the crown to find the stresses around implant–bone interface. Analytical approach is used to predict fatigue life of implant. Good correlation is observed in analytical method and FEA results. The study is useful for better understanding of stress concentration location of implant systems. Guidelines for selecting the best implant can be suggested.