Mandibular bone remodeling around osseointegrated functionally graded biomaterial implant using three dimensional finite element model

Dental implantation surgery has been progressed as one of the most efficient prosthetic technologies, however, it still fails very often and one of the main causes is the large difference between implant mechanical properties and those in welcoming bony tissues, making it problematical in osseointegration and bone remodeling. Biomaterial and tissue engineering research shows that there is a requirement in developing implants with Functionally Graded Materials (FGM). Indeed, the great potential of FGM lies not only in the field of bone tissue engineering but also in dentistry. To improve the acceptance of dental implants inside the living bone, FGM were proposed to step up the challenge of ensuring a better match of mechanical properties between biologically and mechanically compatible biomaterials. The aim of the present work is to investigate mandibular bone remodeling induced by FGM dental implant. Three-dimensional (3D) mandibular bone structure around an osseointegrated dental implant has been created to analyze the biomechanical behavior of the bone-implant system depending on implant material composition. In order to implement the numerical algorithm into ABAQUS software, UMAT subroutines and user-defined material were employed. Finite element analysis have been conducted to determine the stress distributions in implant and bony system, and to evaluate bone remodeling induced by the use of various FGM and pure titanium dental implants over the period of 48 months.