Photoelastic analysis of stress distribution on splinted implants with different connection designs

Abstract

The evolution in implant dentistry and the constant requirement for prosthetic rehabilitation has been growing each day and innovations increase the importance of a correct treatment planning for patient's satisfaction. With the advantages in this area, a lot of innovations were acquired guarantying a variety of implants and prosthetic connection designs. But, even with those advantages the majority of implant system indicated in the past are still present guarantying the treatment success. Bearing this in mind, the necessity of the replacement of previous implants in those cases where a new rehabilitation is required, reestablishing lost teeth around implant-retained crows with different connections is questionable. However, solid information about the biomechanical behavior prostheses retained by splinted implants with different connection designs is scarce. To clarify those questions, the aim of this study is to evaluate the biomechanical behavior of prostheses retained by splinted implant with different connection designs. For this purpose, ten photoelastic models will be fabricated with PL-2 photoelastic resin and implants with 13X4mm (Osteofit) according to their connections: external hexagon, internal hexagon, morse taper and flexcone. The crowns will be fabricated for each group and an axial and an oblique (45 degrees) load of 100N applied at fixed points on occlusal surface by a universal testing machine (EMIC). The stresses created will be recorded and analyzed by a computational program (Adobe Photoshop). The photos of the models will be analyzed for verifying the direction of stresses propagation and their intensity, according to qualitative analyses. To facilitate this process, the analysis will be divided as drawn: according to the number of high stress fringes (green-pink transition) and the area of stress distribution.