Mandibular bone remodeling induced by dental implant.

The ability to assess the effects of an implant on bone remodeling is of particular importance to prosthesis placement planning and associated treatment assurance. Prediction of on-going bone responses will enable us to improve the performance of a restoration. Although the bone remodeling for long bones had been extensively studied, there have been relatively few reports for dental scenarios despite its increasing significance with more and more dental implant placements. This paper aimed to develop a systematic protocol to assess mandibular bone remodeling induced by dental implantation, which extends the remodeling algorithms established for the long bones into dental settings. In this study, a 3D model for a segment of a human mandible was generated from in vivo CT scan images, together with a titanium implant embedded to the mandible. The results examined the changes in bone density and stiffness as a result of bone remodeling over a period of 48 months. Resonance frequency analysis was also performed to relate natural frequencies to bone remodeling. The density contours are qualitatively compared with clinical follow-up X-ray images, thereby providing validity for the bone remodeling algorithm presented in dental bone analysis. Copyright 2009 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.