Dental Implants, What Should Be Known before Starting an in Vitro Study

Dental implant–abutment systems are used as anchors to support single or multi-unit prostheses for partially or fully edentulous patients. In vitro experiments and finite element analyses can be used to investigate their mechanical performance. Accurate information is needed on the geometry, material properties and friction coefficients of different implant-abutment components, on real loading conditions, and elastic properties of human jawbone. Information can be retrieved from previously reported studies or experiments. This paper provides a summary of a small but representative part hereof. Research has shown that the elastic properties of human jawbone are direction dependent and that the Young’s modulus (E) also depends on the bone type. Other studies investigated the maximum bite forces and reported a broad range of results, from 200 to 2000 N. Static experiments are typically performed with axial or bending loads to evaluate the performance of dental implant systems. Dynamic tests simulate chewing cycles and are used to evaluate the fatigue endurance. The supporting structure of the implant system should be representative for the bone structure. Finite element models are ideally suited to evaluate the biomechanical behaviour of implant systems. Accurate representation of the supporting bone and its interaction with the implant is crucial.