Finite element analysis of an osseointegrated stepped screw dental implant.

An osseointegrated stepped screw dental implant was evaluated using 2-dimensional finite element analysis (FEA). The implant was modeled in a cross section of the posterior human mandible digitized from a computed tomography (CT) generated patient data set. A 15-mm regular platform (RP) Branemark implant with equivalent length and neck diameter was used as a control. The study was performed under a number of clinically relevant parameters: loading at the top of the transmucosal abutment in vertical, horizontal, and 45 degrees oblique 3 orientations. Elastic moduli of the mandible varied from a normal cortical bone level (13.4 GPa) to a trabecular bone level (1.37 GPa). The study indicated that an oblique load and elastic moduli of the cortical bone are important parameters to the implant design optimization. Compared with the cylindrical screw implant, the maximum von Mises stress of the stepped screw implant model was 17.9% lower in the trabecular bone-implant area. The study also showed that the stepped screw implant is suitable for the cortical bone modulus from 10 to 13.4 GPa, which is not necessarily as strict as the Branemark implant, for which a minimum 13.4 GPa cortical bone modulus is recommended.